Ballinrobe holds nine meetings each year between May and September and is a dual purpose racecourse. Ballinrobe is the only racecourse in County Mayo.

The highlight of Ballinrobe’s flat calendar would be the EBF Fillies’ Handicap which takes places at the Ballinrobe June Meeting whilst their biggest jumps race would be their 17f handicap chase which is part of their August Meeting.

Ballinrobe Course Characteristics

Ballinrobe is a right handed, oval track with a circuit measuring between 8f and 9f. It has an extremely short run in of just over a furlong so races will develop around the final bend.

The back straight at Ballinrobe is uphill and the home straight is downhill. Given the tight nature of the track and the downhill finish it tends to suit speedier types of runners.

Top Ballinrobe Flat Trainers

There aren’t exactly many prolific trainers at Ballinrobe on the flat but the most successful trainers since 2009 have been Aidan O’Brien, Dermot Weld and Jessica Harrington, all with 9 winners each. Dermot Weld leads the way in terms of placed runners too.

The best strike rate here on the flat at the time of writing for trainers who’ve had more than 10 runners here in the past decade belongs to Willie Mullins who has a 41.18% strike rate here. That’s narrowly better than the win strike rate of Aidan O’Brien who has a strike rate of 40.91%. The nxt best strike rates are around half of what this pair are providing so they look the main trainers to respect at Ballinrobe when having runners.

Top Ballinrobe Jumps Trainers

Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott dominate the trainers’ table over obstacles with 31 and 30 winners respectively at the time of writing. The pair are also responsible for the most placed horses unsurprisingly but Gordon Elliott tops that metric.

Gordon Elliott has around twice as many runners here as Willie Mullins though so his strike rate suffers as a result. Willie Mullins has the second best win strike rate here over jumps of 24.41% but Donal Hassett is narrowly ahead of him with a 25% strike rate. That’s from just 12 runners though so the data does have to be taken with a slight pinch of salt and you won’t find him having anywhere near as many runners as Mullins.

Top Ballinrobe Flat Jockeys

The late Pat Smullen had enjoyed more success here than any other flat jockey over the past decade with 23 wins. Shane Foley is next best with 13 wins at Ballinrobe since 2009.

In terms of strike rate for win purposes, it is Donnacha O’Brien who comes out on top with an impressive 37.5%. Over half of his mounts have placed and he’s been profitable to follow blind for win only betting.

Top Ballinrobe Jumps Jockeys

Paul Townend has been the most successful jockey here in recent times with 31 wins, unsurprising given his link to Willie Mullins. The now retired Barry Geraghty was next best with 24 wins since 2009. The pair were also responsible for the best win strike rate here too during the examined period.

Ballinrobe Draw Bias

Given the tight, right handed nature of the course it would make sense that a low draw could be a big advantage here but as they tend to race over longer distances here, even on the flat, that tends to negate much of the potential draw advantage and it is only marginally more favourable from a PRB (Percentage of Rivals Beaten) perspective to be drawn lower rather than higher.

Ballinrobe Pace Bias

There is a strong pace bias at Ballinrobe towards front runners on the flat course. Between 2009 and 2021 horses that led in their races had an impressive win percentage of 15,74% and an IV of 1.85. Flat front runners at Ballinrobe were profitable to back blind, producing a WIN PL of 17.63.

Prominent races fared next best and still had a good IV of 1.34 despite being unprofitable to back blind. Horses that raced in mid division or were held up were not generally seen to best effect and performed very poorly.

Hurdle races saw a similar advantage to flat races although several of the metrics for pace advantage slightly favoured prominent racers over front runners. The win percentage, place percentage and IV all favoured prominent racers rather than front runners with mid division and hold up once again performing poorly.

In chase races the pace advantage reverts back to front runners again for most metrics although if backing a certain run style blindly you would have been more profitable going for prominent runners rather than front runners.

Overall at Ballinrobe there is certainly a pace bias that favours those that race nearer the pace rather than nearer the rear and that is seen across all codes.

*All stats and data provided above were taken on 13/01/21.