Punchestown Racecourse

 

 

About Punchestown Racecourse

Punchestown Racecourse is without doubt the most prestigious National Hunt track in the country with seventeen high-quality meetings each year. This course has hosted horse racing since 1824 and the highlights;ight of the annual calendar is the Punchestown Festival which is the traditional closing fixture of the Irish National Hunt season. This meeting includes 12 Grade 1 races with the highlights of these being the Punchestown Champion Hurdle and the Punchestown Gold Cup.

 

Location of Punchestown Racecourse

This prestigious track lies less than 30km south-west of Dublin close to the town of Naas. During the festival there are direct bus links to the Irish capital, otherwise there are frequent bus services throughout the day between Dublin and Naas with the journey time typically taking around one hour. From Naas town centre, taxis to the racecourse cost around €10 – €12.

 

Jumps Track

Punchestown consists of a right-handed undulating track, galloping in character with a steady uphill gradient over the final five furlongs. This track provides a fair test for jumpers with eleven fences on one circuit. The cross-country is twisting and long with banks and a variety of other obstacles. Few of these are jumped on more than one occasion. Turns on this cross country and both right and left-handed.

 

 

Punchestown Racecourse Betting Guide

This really is a tale of two tracks. The chase track is generally very fair with stiff fences, however the hurdle track is particularly undulating with the downhill section following the winning post being quite difficult. There are tight bends along the way, especially the penultimate bend, and it really is sharper than it looks. This track suits handier types more so than held-up sorts.

Trainers & Jockeys

Over the past three years, WP Mullins has been king of the trainers with a combined total over Chase and Hurdle of 61 wins from his 317 runners here, while Gordon Elliott bagged 12 wins from 59 on National Hunt Flat over this period. Top jockeys over this time have been Davy Russell with 13 wins from 55 on Chase while Rachael Blackmore has 16 wins from 80 rides on Chase.