The Curragh Racecourse

 

 

About The Curragh Racecourse

The Curragh Racecourse is famous for being the venue of the Irish Classics and it undeniably has an illustrious history, the track first hosting race meetings back in 1741. This is purely a Flat track with 19 meetings held between March and October. All but two of Ireland’s 12 Group 1 races take place at this famous racecourse with this total including all five Irish Classics. The Irish Derby takes place in June and is always the biggest attended meeting at this venue, however of growing importance is the Curragh leg of the Irish Champions weekend held in September.

 

Location of The Curragh Racecourse

The Curragh is located slap-bang between the towns of Kildare and Newbridge in County Kildare, just 54km south-west of Dublin. Transport links are excellent with Junction 12 of the M7 Motorway within 1km of there main grandstands. The nearby towns of Newbridge and Kildare are served by regular trains from the Irish capital and taxis from the former will set you back around €7 – €10. On race-days, buses linking the two towns with the course are frequent and take less than 20 minutes in each direction.

 

 Track

This is a right-handed, horseshoe shaped course with a length of two miles. There are no sharp bends and the run-in has a slight uphill incline and a length of three furlongs. There are various starts of five, six and seven furlongs as well as six furlongs 63 yards and one mile on the straight course. Position bias and pace have more bearing than the draw on the straight course.

 

 

The Curragh Betting Guide

Three courses at this venue consist of the Derby Track, Plate Track and Inner Track, all three differing substantially. The Derby track involves more turning and as such a low draw is an advantage here. A high draw is preferable when they race against the stand on the straight irrespective of the ground, a slight camber away from the stand side making things slightly drier closer to the stand. The draw is largely irrelevant when the running rail is moved into the middle of the track, however high numbers are generally preferred. There aren’t any big biases on the seven furlong and mile tracks although on softer ground runners tend to move to the middle or stand side.

Trainers & Jockeys

Aidan O’Brien is king of the trainers here, 86 wins from 458 runners giving a strike rate of 18.78% over the past three years. His son Donnacha O’Brien is joint-top of the jockeys in terms of overall winners alongside R L Moore with 44 apiece from 214 and 151 rides respectively.