Turnover and profits fall at Wolverhampton Racecourse

The racecourse also took a hit from the closure of its Holiday Inn hotel for a major refurbishment during the summer.

But directors said they "look forward to the future with confidence".

Wolverhampton is a floodlit all-weather racecourse, conference and exhibition centre and remains one of the busiest courses in the UK.

But last year the number of fixtures fell to 79, from 99 in 2015. In its accounts for 2016, just filed with Companies House, Wolverhampton Racecourse said: "The decline in 2016 is largely a result of fixtures being moved to Newcastle racecourse, affliliated to the company, where a new all-weather track was opened."

Parent group Arena Racing has invested £11 million in Newcastle's racecourse at Gosforth Park over the last two years.

The financial impact on Wolverhampton saw turnover down £2m, or nearly 14 per cent, to £12.9 million from £14.9m in 2015.

The racecourse directors said in their report: "The Holiday Inn hotel underwent a major refurbishments during May and June 2016 which meant the hotel was closed for this period.

"This resulted in a significant reduction in contribution from the hotel for the year."

But, they added: "The refurbishment has been received positively".

The impact cut pre-tax earnings by a third, falling to £2.2m from £3.3m. This was blamed on the fall in revenue and increased costs, particularly labour costs because of the increase in the national minimum wage. The company also increased its contribution towards prize money at the racecourse.

The racecourse said it faced a number of potential risks, such as the amount of disposable income in the economy and competition for the UK's leisure pound.

"In addition, as with any business that is conducted outdoors in the UK, a further risk is that of weather related abandonments. It is impossible to mitigate this risk but the company does allow for a certain number of abandonments when completing its business plans."

Pre-tax profit for the year fell to £1.73m from £2.86m the year before.

The number of permanent staff at the racecourse rose to 53, from 50 the previous year. But the number of casual staff employed on race days fell to between 30 and 95, down from between 40 and 150 in 2015.

Wolverhampton is one of 16 racecourses operated by parent company Arena Racing Corporation, which saw its overall turnover fall £3.1m to £90.1m because of moving fixtures to Newcastle. Pre-tax revenues for the group were down to £18m from £24.3m in 2015