Dundalk racecourse in County Louth, formerly predominantly used for jumps racing until 2001, reopened in 2007 as a polytrack surface all weather course. The racecourse sees plenty of racing (38 fixtures a year, the majority of which take place between October and March) and is floodlight to allow evening fixtures throughout the year.

Dundalk is host to two Group 3 races, both held in October each year. They are the 10.5f Diamond Stakes for 3yo+ and the 5f Mercury Stakes for 2yo. There is also a listed contest held at Dundalk, the Patton Stakes is held in March and is a 1m race for the classic generation.

Dundalk Course Characteristics

A circuit of Dundalk’s polytrack is around 10f in distance. The course is left handed and oval shaped with a 2.5f run in. There is a 5f chute on the entrance to the home bend that allows runner to travel 1.5f before meeting the main course for the remaining 3.5f of the race.

The course can ride fairly firm and doesn’t necessarily suit horses that have shown a liking for softer surfaces on turf.

Dundalk Top Jockeys

Of the jockeys currently riding, Shane Foley and Colin Keane lead the way with the best part of 200 course wins each at the time of writing in January 2021.

Ryan Moore hasn’t ridden here very often but he does have a 60% strike rate from his five rides at Dundalk. Donnacha O’Brien has the best strike rate of the more regular visitors to Dundalk, he boasts an impressive 19.45% strike rate having won 78 of his 401 rides to date.

Dundalk Top Trainers

Michael Halford is the winningmost trainer at Dundalk since 2009 with 260 wins at the time of writing. That puts him well clear of the next best contenders of Aidan O’Brien and Ger Lyons who have 160 and 157 respectively.

It’s worth taking note of any Sir Mark Prescott runners at the track. He is 6 from 11 at the course giving him a 54.55% strike rate which cannot be bettered by any other trainer. Of the trainers who have had more than 25 runners here, Mark Johnston boasts an impressive 25% strike rate and Kevin Ryan has a 24.14% strike rate.

Dundalk Draw Bias

Across all distances consistently at Dundalk low drawn runners seem to perform better than high drawn participants.

This includes a number of metrics, particularly PRB (Percentage of Rivals Beaten) where we are getting a lot of data and seeing lower draws outperform higher draws on a regular basis.

Possibly the strongest bias can be found at 6f at Dundalk. Win percentage is around half of what it is for low draws compared to high draws, A/E drops from 0.92 to 0.64 and IV falls from 1.35 to 0.69. This is a distance where the lower the draw the more your runner will have an advantage.

Dundalk Pace Bias

Distances between 5f and 7f exhibit strong front runner biases.

At 5f, 6f and 7f at Dundalk front runners have been profitable to follow if backed blind and they massively outperform all other run styles. Pretty much every metric confirms that the more patiently a horse is ridden at Dundalk over shorter distances, the more of a disadvantage it faces.

At distances of 1m+ there remains some front running pace bias but it is much weaker over the long distances than it is over 7f or shorter. Having said that, the pace bias does seem to be stronger over the extended 10f than it is over the one mile trip.