Irish Racecourses
07/03/2008 - 15:54:33There are more racetracks per head of population in Ireland than in any other country in the world; some would say there is not enough room to swing a jockey due to the amount of racecourses in the country.
Ireland is the country where steeplechase racing first occurred and which, in the Coolmore Stud, has the principal stud farm in Europe. With world famous courses such as the Curragh, Leopardstown and Punchestown, some of the best horses in the world go through their paces here.
The Irish flat season, racing with no obstacles, runs from the middle of March to the middle of November and National Hunt or ‘jump’ racing operates from November to April – with other races sprinkled outside these months. All tracks hold both types of racing except for Kilbeggan in Co Westmeath which holds jump racing only while Laytown and the Curragh cater for flat racing.
Other forms of racing include the aforementioned steeplechase, which are run over ‘fences’ of sorts, much as a hurdle race is run over ‘hurdles’ just over 3 feet high, whereas point-to-point races are run over fences on designated farmland in the spring and autumn. A nursery for young jump horses, point-to-point races have created many champions.
The Curragh
Of the 27 racecourses in Ireland, the Curragh is the home of flat racing which hosts all the Irish Classics: The Budweiser Irish Derby; The Darley Irish Oaks; The Boylesports 1000 Guineas; The Boylesports 2000 Guineas and Irish Field St Leger. These Group One races are the five highest quality and most valuable races in the Irish calendar, the jewel in the crown being the Budweiser Irish Derby run on the last Sunday in June, the past winners of which include High Chaparral, Sinndar and the ill-fated Shergar. The Turf Club, which regulates racing in Ireland, was set up in the nearby town of Kildare in 1790 and the course, as well as having the largest horse training yard in the country, is surrounded by other yards and stud farms. Must be why they call Kildare the home of the horse in Ireland.
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Punchestown
The best is not confined to the plains of Kildare, for within the county is Punchestown where some of the best jump racing is held. Some of the best jump races are held here over the autumn and winter where true champions, such as Beef Or Salmon and Kicking King, compete with the top horses from the UK, France and Ireland. The jump season culminates in the spring festival here, a four-day festival that has 10 Grade 1 races worth €2.1m in prize money.
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Leopardstown
In the neighbouring county of Dublin is Leopardstown, which has both jump racing in winter and flat racing for the rest of the year. Built in 1888, the course hosts the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial, one of Ireland’s premier flat races that frequently bring up the English or Irish Derby winners. A race that plays an integral part in identifying the world champion horse, as it is part of the World Series Racing Championship, is the Baileys Irish Champion Stakes which has seen three of its winners from the past eight years taking the world crown. The course also hosts the main steeplechase event, the Hennessy Gold Cup, which tops off a series of winter jump festivals, including the Pierse Hurdle and the AIG Europe Champion Hurdle.
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Fairyhouse
Northwest of Dublin is Co Meath’s Fairyhouse course where Easter sees the Powers Gold Label Grand National as the center-piece of the jump season. First run in 1870, the Grand National is just over 3.5 miles and has 24 fences, probably why only horses like Commanche Court and Desert Orchid have come out on top here.
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Galway
Across the country on the west coast is the last of the five premier racetracks in Ireland, Galway. Whenever anyone thinks of Galway, the ‘Galway Races’ immediately come to mind. Six miles outside the city, Gaillimh or the ‘Place of foreigners’, could not be more aptly named as people come from all over the world for this week-long feast of racing, to top off their summer at Ireland’s equivalent to the Mardi Gras. With races such as The William Hill Galway Plate and the Guinness Galway Handicap Hurdle, it is no surprise that the likes of Aidan O’Brien, Ruby Walsh, Dermot Weld and Peter Scudamore are present to try and capture some of the spoils.
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Listowel
Deep in the south-west kingdom of Kerry, Listowel celebrates the summer with racing in June and holds a week-long festival of racing which coincides with the autumn harvest festival in September. Being the last festival before Christmas, it is likely you will see the top names from racing vying for the prizes in the jumps or on the flat, with the Guinness Kerry National Chase being the culmination of the week’s festivities. As in Galway, Ladies Day on Friday has proven to be very popular, and is the scene of horses, which have run in the highly-competitive Galway Hurdle, running in Listowel’s Guinness Handicap Hurdle.
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Tralee
Not far from Listowel, you can find racing in May at Tralee as well as the five-day flat and jump racing festival that runs alongside the famous Rose of Tralee in August. Similar to the lengthy elimination process of the Rose Festival, the owners of the course finally settled on its present site, a former deer park owned by the family of Irish patriot Daniel O’Connell, at the sixth attempt. Tralee was the site of Dawn Run’s first win and Vintage Crop, the first horse from outside of Australasia to win the Melbourne Cup, triumphed in the Carling Gold Cup in the nineties.
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Killarney
Apart from the quality racing, Killarney merely relies on the beautiful lake setting of its course to attract punters and the many holidaymakers to this magnificent course in May and July. The latter is a four-day festival that serves as a taster to the Galway Festival a month later and features many of the jockeys and horses looking to add to their Grade One triumphs.
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Cork
Staying in the south-west, but moving outside Kerry, we have Cork racecourse in Mallow that is a few miles from the site of the world’s first steeplechase and heralds the Easter period with its very own festival. The steeplechase originated here in 1752 when Edmund Blake and Cornelius O’Callaghan raced across country from the steeple of the church in Buttevant to that of St Mary’s in Doneraile in order to settle a bet as to whose horse was faster. Nowadays steeplechases are run over ‘fences’ of sorts, much as a hurdle race is run over ‘hurdles’ just over 3 feet high. In Mallow, the summer continues the mix of flat and jump racing from the Easter festival, while winter sees a feast of jump contests, maintaining its proud steeplechase tradition.
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Clonmel
Doran’s Pride, Beef Or Salmon and Edredon Bleu are some of the names to have graced the woodland track at Clonmel in Co Tipperary. This charming setting, with the Comeragh and Slievenamon mountains as its background, lights up the winter season with some of the aforementioned stars of jump racing competing in its Grade Two races. The Powerstown Park has hosted races since the early 19th century and continues to do so from November to February every year.
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Tipperary
Tipperary racecourse can boast the likes of High Chaparral, Istabraq and Limestone Lad in its roster of past runners. With the world-famous Coolmore Stud in the area, it can be assumed that you will see some future champions in action here. The racing goes on from the spring to the first Sunday of October - otherwise known as ‘Super Sunday’, this is the culmination of the highest quality mixed meeting in the country where Istabraq, Accordion Etoile and Harchibald have come first past the post in the Grade Two Tipperary Hurdle.
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Thurles
Thurles racetrack completes the trio of courses in the county of Tipperary and upholds the quality with such luminaries as Native Upmanship and Rule Supreme winning at ‘The Stronghold’ in the past. Often you can see a future Cheltenham or Punchestown winner here such as Klairon Davis and in late January or early February you can warm up with some excitement at the course’s annual highlight, the Kinloch Brae Chase, which attracts many a top horse.
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Limerick
A short jaunt down the road takes you to the west coast’s Limerick racecourse, which hosts a bustling Christmas festival boasting Imperial Call and Hi Cloy as past winners in the Greenmount Park Novice Chase on the opening day. A predecessor of six other courses in the county that was built in 2001, the modern facilities have been built on the site of a stud farm and have witnessed Aries Girl and Montelado take the honours.
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Tramore
On the south coast, racing at Tramore originally started on the beach, but had to be moved to the outskirts of the town because the sea breached the track after storms. From 1911, the first meeting of the Irish racing calendar has been held at the Co Waterford facility that also hosts a festival over four days, and three evenings, in August. Races in spring and autumn complete the picture at this tight circuit, which was recently refurbished to keep up with the holiday facilities at the nearby holiday town.
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Wexford
Up the coast is the track at Wexford where Irish Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Sinndar won its first race. The racing starts on St Patrick’s Day and continues right through the summer.
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Gowran Park
Co Kilkenny, the home of Red Rum and the racetrack at Gowran Park, hosts the showpiece €75,000 Thyestes Steeplechase run in mid-January. The race commemorates the famous racehorse owned by the McCalmont family, which has been closely linked with Gowran Park since its inception. Stud farms and trainers such as Paddy Mullins populate the wooded environs surrounding the track.
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Naas
Venturing northwards to the ‘Thoroughbred county’ of Kildare, Naas, or the ‘meeting place of kings’ as it is known from its Irish translation, is the perfect place for the sport of kings. The great Arkle collected the honours here in the sixties, while Cheltenham winners Doran’s Pride and Imperial Call triumphed here also.
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Kilbeggan
The only course to rely solely on jump racing for entertainment is Kilbeggan which specializes in summer evening meets and hosts the Midland’s Grand National in July. At its present location from 1901, racing has featured in the area since 1840, and has featured jump racing exclusively since 1971. Since the early nineties, the number of meets, and consequently the attendance, has doubled.
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Laytown
In Co Meath we have Laytown, the only venue in Europe that can hold beach racing. Charles Stuart Parnell was one of the first stewards of the races, which used to take place alongside the Boyne Regatta from the 1860s. The track, as such, doesn’t exist as expert guides view the ever-shifting sand dunes to see which sand bank is most suitable for racing at the time of the September meeting. Race goers can watch the action from the facilities, hastily erected just before the meet every year, located at the elevated ‘race field’ just above the beach front.
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Bellewstown
Situated on a hill in Co Meath, with views of the Mountains of Mourne and the Irish Sea, Bellewstown is a small, but bright, jewel in the Irish racing crown. Race enthusiasts can recharge their batteries with summer evening meets at the festivals held here in July and August.
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Navan
Navan, where the likes of Moscow Flyer and Brave Inca have tested themselves on the tough uphill finish, is known for its jump racing in the winter months, but also stages flat racing for the rest of the year except July and August when it takes a break. The home town track of Hector O'Heochagain, this Co Meath course can also delight with the likes of Macs Joy, Davids Lad, Hardy Eustace and Limestone Lad competing in top class races such as the Troytown Chase.
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Dundalk
Near Navan is the racetrack at Dundalk, Co Louth, which can boast three firsts in Ireland. From August 2007, it installed an all-weather surface, a must for the unpredictable Irish climate. Also, in the winter months, the track stages floodlit meetings on the winter evenings, so enthusiasts can warm themselves with a winner or two. And if horses are not enough for you, the track shares the venue with greyhound racing.
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Downpatrick
Downpatrick in Co Down has a first of its own - it has seen racing from 1685, making it the oldest course in Ireland. One of the founding fathers of the Thoroughbred breed, Byerley Turk, ran here in 1690 en route to the Battle of the Boyne. Highlight of the year at the course is the Powers Whisky Ulster National, run in late February, it is just one of the attractions at the course throughout the year which has seen Irish Grand National winner Rhyme n' Reason triumph.
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Down Royal
Down the road is the Grade One racecourse Down Royal which stages the Ulster Derby - recently won by Melbourne Cup winner Media Puzzle. Originally founded by England’s King James II at Downpatrick, the Down Royal Corporation of Horse Breeders started the horse craze in 1685 and then moved to the present course in 1789. The November meeting showcases the cream of jump racing, where legends like Florida Pearl, Looks Like Trouble and Beef Or Salmon have plied their trade, while flat racing competes with the jump version throughout the year for the affections of race fans.
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Sligo
The race calendar in the north-west of Ireland starts around Easter and runs through the summer months before saying its farewells in October. The attractions of flat and jump racing can be seen at the foot of the mountains Benbulben and Knocknarea in Sligo, and the August meets are a must for those who have seen the splendour of the ‘Galway Races’ and want more.
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Roscommon
Roscommon competes with Sligo to see which has the best racing in the north-west during the summer. Opened by the British military in 1837, racing didn’t really get going here until 1885 but hasn’t looked back. Roscommon saw Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Imperial Call run his first race, while Ireland’s Ascot Gold Cup winner Enzeli won a jaunt here a year before its more illustrious triumph.
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Ballinrobe
Finally, the west coast of Ireland gets in on the horseracing scene at Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, a Grade Two flat and jump course set in a natural amphitheatre. Famous runners from these tracks include Cheltenham stalwart Doran’s Pride, who won its first race at the track, Imperial Call and Brewster. In keeping with the relaxed attitude of the west of Ireland, Ballinrobe’s summer evening meets are a must for race fans who want to relax and enjoy the experience.
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