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.
Wolverhampton replaced its Polytrack with the synthetic surface that is the brainchild of former Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning trainer Michael Dickinson.
Tapeta has been used around the world including Devonport in Tasmania but is being replaced by dirt at Meydan in Dubai.
It turned out to be a good afternoon for Doyle who completed a double on the new surface.
“It rode perfectly nice. It feels safe. It’s funny as it doesn’t strike me as a whole lot different,” Doyle said.
“I suppose only in extreme temperatures will we find out how the surface reacts, but certainly you couldn’t fault it.”
De Sousa was not among the winners, but has more experience than most on Tapeta having won the Dubai World Cup on the surface aboard African Story in March.
The Brazilian-born jockey feels the freshly-laid track will only improve with racing.
“It’s a nice surface. It’s just riding a bit slow, but when the ground settles I think it will be nice,” he told At The Races.
“It’s not exactly the same (as the surface at Meydan), but it’s riding well.”
Dickinson was on hand to gauge the reaction of jockeys and trainers and was pleased with the general feedback he received.
“First of all I asked all the jockeys if it was safe and all the jockeys to a man said it is safe,” Dickinson said.
“Some horses are winning wire to wire and some have been coming from out of it, so that’s encouraging.
“It’s a tiny little bit slow today, but it just needs a couple of weeks to bed in and it will be great.”
