By Simon Mapletoft
As Newcastle’s All-Weather track celebrates such a memorable first decade, it’s hard to believe that Arena Racing Company found themselves weathering a storm of controversy when they announced their decision to replace the age-old turf track with a Tapeta surface back in the autumn of 2015.
The much-revered turf, which had been home to the famous Northumberland Plate since 1882, was to be dug up to make way for a £12 million wax-based sand surface – the brainchild of former top trainer Michael Dickinson.
Resistance was vocal, with many top trainers expressing their derision. Ed Vaughan, who had won a Winter Derby on the All-Weather with Robin Hood’s Bay, described the news as an act of vandalism while Ralph Backett said it was difficult to think of a more depressing announcement for the sport.
Newmarket-based William Haggas was among the high-prolife names adding his concerns, but the majority of trainers in the north appeared less sceptical and ready to embrace the new opportunities it would bring to their owners and businesses.
Pointing out the obvious need for an All-Weather track in the north, Group 1 winner Richard Fahey shared ARC’s foresight when he declared his support. “If no other course wants to take the bull by the horns and set the wheels in motion, I don’t see why it shouldn’t be Newcastle,” he said.
Jockeys in the north were also quick to acknowledge the benefits of a local track where they could ply their trade without the need to make those long, punishing journeys to Kempton Park and Lingfield Park for scarce rides through the dark winter months.
By the time a trials day took place two weeks before the track officially re-opened in 2016, 40 jockeys turned up to put the wax-based surface to the test. Boasting the only floodlit straight mile in the world, the 1m5f circuit passed with flying colours.
The Professional Jockeys’ Association’s executive director Dale Gibson spoke for the weighing room when he declared: “We had some terrific feedback from senior jockeys who all enjoyed riding on the new Tapeta track and are really looking forward to the first raceday.”
Shortly after 2pm on Tuesday, 17th May, Karl Burke was greeting the first ever winner, Tap The Honey, who dominated a 10f maiden under Joey Haynes. David O’Meara left with a double, while Mark Johnston – often critical of the All-Weather racing product over the years - took the 7f handicap with Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum’s Turbine.
There was a winner, too, for Brian Ellison, born and raised only a stone’s throw from the track. The Malton handler would become a staunch supporter of the new surface and would be rewarded with his finest moment there in 2024 when Onesmoothoperator realised a lifelong dream – to win the coveted Plate.
Despite concerns that leading southern based trainers would refuse to make the 400-mile round trip, none of them could ignore the merits of such a world class surface and quickly enough their lorries began to find their way back up the A1 to Gosforth.
If Newcastle needed a shot in the arm from a PR perspective in its formative years, John Gosden presented it with a glowing endorsement by sending the first of four future superstars to the track, starting on 7th November, 2016.
Stradivarius broke his maiden at the third attempt over the straight mile before Enable sauntered to a debut success in a mile fillies’ maiden for two-year-olds just three weeks later.
In December 2017, while those two were beginning to set the racing world alight, Gosden unleashed Without Parole in a mile novice and gave a winning handicap debut to Palace Pier in the summer of 2020.
It was a feather in Newcastle’s now colourful cap that Stradivarius went on to win seven Group 1s including three Ascot Gold Cups while the magnificent Enable numbered two Prix de l’Arc de Triomphes among her glittering array of top-class victories.
The track also helped lay the foundation for success in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot for Gosden in 2018 and 2020 with fellow Geordieland graduates Without Parole and Palace Pier. All four were ridden by Clarehaven stalwart Robert Havlin.
“Stradivarius was gutsy to win over a mile, which was well short of his best trip as it turned out,” he recalls. “I remember being headed by Pat Cosgrave (on Godolphin’s Mutarabby) but he fought back to win by just a head. Funnily enough I’d beaten him at Newmarket a few weeks earlier on Cracksman, who went on to win us six Group races.
Havlin was less hopeful when he climbed aboard an un-raced Enable on that late winter afternoon in November. “I’d just got back from a stint in South Africa so wasn’t sure what to expect. Nicky Mackay was on our other horse (Lenoire) who he thought would do better.
“Enable was a lazy horse at home who had shown us only occasional brilliance. Predictably, she was half asleep during the race but clicked into gear at the furlong pole to win easily. Even so, no one could have reamed she would turn out to be one of the greatest fillies of all time.”
It was a chilly afternoon just before Christmas when Without Parole gift wrapped a mile novice for the Scot, trouncing his nearest rival by six lengths. “He was a very speedy horse who had been working well so we knew what we had,” adds Havlin. “It was hands and heels and set him up for two more wins before Frankie Dettori took the St James’s Palace on him the following summer.
“He was physically a very different horse to Palace Pier who was a slow burner. The boss wanted to go to the Guineas with him but he was so lazy at home that we couldn’t get a line on him. So, he ended up at Newcastle in a handicap on his first start of the year and won it off 98! That was just two weeks before he went to Royal Ascot and beat Pinatubo in the St James’s Palace.”
Around that time, in fact almost a year to the day that the track opened, another Newmarket-trained horse honed his own sparkling career with a debut success on the Tapeta. Richard Spencer’s juvenile colt Rajasinghe impressed enough in a 7f novice to take his chance in the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at the Royal Meeting and beat a field of Classic hopefuls under Stevie Donohoe.
That year Newcastle had introduced a mile Listed race for three-year-olds which they hoped would become recognised as a legitimate Classic trial. In 2018 it was won by Jeremy Noseda’s powerhouse of a colt Gronkowski, who had already won a novice at the track. He later joined top American trainer Chad Brown to chase home the great Justify in the Belmont Stakes before failing by an agonising nose to beat Thunder Snow in the Dubai World Cup when trained for Phoenix Thoroughbreds by Salem bin Ghadayer.
The highlight of Newcastle’s first decade as an All-Weather track was undoubtedly Kameko’s win in the Futurity Trophy in November 2019. Re-routed from Doncaster the previous weekend, it became the first ever Group 1 to be run on an artificial surface in Britain.
Oisin Murphy duly guided Andrew Balding’s Qatar Racing colt to a victory that catapulted him to a stirring win in the 2000 Guineas on his next racecourse appearance seven months later. Indeed, that moment of history at Gosforth Park appeared to cement Balding’s own illustrious association with the track.
The master of Kingsclere has gone on to dominate the All-Weather Championships Finals Day which moved from Lingfield to Newcastle in 2022. The most successful trainer at Good Friday’s showpiece fixture, he completed the full set of wins in each of the six categories when Stateira landed last season’s Fillies’ and Mares’ prize back in April.
Whilst Finals Day now appears to be established at the track, Plate Day continues to be the biggest social event in the North East calendar and the historic race they call the Pitmen’s Derby has produced two of its most memorable performances since the switch to Tapeta.
Few true racing fans could forget the exploits of the late, great Trueshan, who produced one of the most brilliant staying performances of the modern era when humping 10st 8lb to victory in 2022. He showed courage beyond words to grind out that victory on a surface that was riding deeper than usual.
Sky Sports Racing's Hollie Doyle, who was in the saddle that day and won three Group 1s on Alan King’s ill-fated star, recalls the race with fondness. “He was so brave and determined. It was a huge ask to give so much weight to such a strong field but he dug so deep and just kept on finding. He was a horse of a lifetime for me and that was such a special moment,” she says.
There wasn’t a dry eye on the track when Brian Ellison fulfilled that boyhood dream in the Plate two years later. The veteran handler had never won the race he used to watch with wide eyes as a child but Onesmoothoperator – a Geelong Cup winner in Australia later that year - secured without doubt the most emotional victory the race has produced on sand.
Turning 72 the day before, Ellison couldn’t fight back the tears when he told me on Sky Sports Racing: “I thought I’d had my chance when Seamour got caught a few years ago but this has to be the greatest day of my career. Everyone’s been saying I’ve got to win the Plate so it’s amazing to get the monkey off my back.”
Newcastle has become an important track for so many people in racing, not only those who have punctuated its first decade with such momentous successes. Richard Fahey, who gave his support from the outset, is the top trainer there with close on 170 winners, while William Haggas has a century in sight.
It’s a tribute to its diversity, too, that the top owners at the track are Godolphin and York-based trainer Antony Brittain - a diversity that has recently seen syndicate-owned Yorkshire Glory crowned the All-Weather Horse of the Year following a string of successes at the course.
However, the trainer-jockey combination that has become the most synonymous with the venue is Jim Goldie and Paul Mulrennan. Scotland based Goldie is second only to Fahey in the all-time winners’ chart and has provided Mulrennan with a big chunk of nearly 200 All-Weather successes at Newcastle.
“Riding there for Jim has definitely improved me as a jockey,” admits the northern based rider, whose knack for delivering horses late from off the pace there has become his signature. “He’s taught me to properly engage my brain when it comes to race riding. For me it’s the best All-Weather track in Europe as you can really ride a race on it.
“It’s unique with its long straight and stiff, uphill finish and the wind that blows in across the track or sometimes into your faces presents another challenge that as a jockey you have to be alive to,” he adds.
“Although there was a lot of opposition at the start, most jockeys and trainers agreed that we badly needed an All-Weather track in the north. Before Newcastle, racing up here was drying up by the end of September so it was hard to keep busy. There wasn’t enough to go around.
“Racing through the winter there has made a big difference to my work-life schedule. I can ride plenty of winners and still have that quality time at home. It’s also less demanding on your body when you don’t have to make those long journeys south all winter.”
With such an illustrious decade behind it, Newcastle can look forward to its next 10 years with huge positivity. The Plate Festival in late June will undoubtedly bring new highlights before the track gears up tor another starring role in Season 14 of the All-Weather Championships come October.
