A few miles outside of Newark you will find Southwell All Weather race course. It is a very pleasant place to go racing and I can recommend both the fish and chips and the excellent race course restaurant that serves a very good three course lunch. However, it is not so much the food that attracts but the excellent betting opportunities at this fibresand track.

Being the only race course in the UK where the horses race on fibresand it is definitely the place to look for specialists. There are both horses and trainers who seem to do particularly well at this Nottinghamshire track.

Whereas the other all weather courses race on a polyttrack surface which is similar to the turfs “good” going the deep fibre sand is not unlike racing on “soft” going. Also there is considerable kickback from the hooves of the front runners which can often deter horses from behind making a challenge in the closing stages. There also seems to be a bit of a bias towards horses drawn from the centre to the outside of the track.

Given these factors there are certain pointers that I look for when selecting a horse to back or lay at Southwell. I will not back a horse that has not previously won on the track preferably over the same distance. If there is more than one horse that has won course and distance then I will look at its form over its last 3 races. If any of those races were at Southwell and in the same class or lower and it was not placed I discount it as a bet.

Trainers who are worth following at Southwell include P D Evans,W J Haggas, Mark Johnston and James Given.

There are also good lay opportunities when a horse is favourite at odds of 2/1 or less but has never run at Southwell before. No matter how good a horses form is on turf or even the polytrack there is no guarantee that it will act on the Southwell sand. One clue is if the horse has performed well on soft turf going but even then I would hold a watching brief.

So here is my simple Southwell system:

Back any horse if it is the only runner that has won course and distance. providing it has not run unplaced at Southwell in one of its last 3 races. It must have also raced in the last 21 days.

Lay any horse priced at 2/1 or less that has never run at Southwell before.

Not a tested system but I know that when I go racing at Southwell I usually come away with the money which I don’t always do elsewhere.