Thumbs up for Tapeta surface

Leading jockeys James Doyle and Silvestre de Sousa were among those to praise the new surface at Wolverhampton as racing took place on Tapeta for the first time in Britain at Dunstall Park yesterday.

It was announced at the end of April that Wolverhampton was replacing Polytrack with the synthetic surface that is the brainchild of former Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning trainer Michael Dickinson.

Tapeta has been used at Meydan in Dubai and at various racecourses and training centres across the globe and there was a sense of intrigue in front of a healthy crowd in the Midlands.