Gowran Park Racecourse is a dual-purpose racecourse, located in County Kilkenny. Gowran Park hosts 17 race days throughout the year. The feature race during the National Hunt season at Gowran Park is the Thyestes Chase, which is a handicap chase held in January. It is usually a prep for the Grand National. The Denny Cordell Lavarack Fillies Stakes is arguably the best of the flat races, which is a group 3 for fillies and mares. It usually takes place around late September.

Gowran Park Course Characteristics

The course is a right-handed, oval shaped track. It is galloping in nature and has a circumference of around 1m 4f. The final 3 furlongs are uphill and can be quite testing. There are 7 fences on the chase course and 6 flights on the hurdle course. The chase course is situated on the outside of the hurdle course.

For course information and going reports on the day, Gowran Park Racecourse provide updates on their Twitter account

IS THERE A PACE BIAS AT GOWRAN PARK RACECOURSE?

A lot of Irish Racecourse have a tendency to suit front or prominent racers. Gowran Park is no different. There is a good mixture of flat and jump racing at Gowran Park, but in general it pays to race prominently. It is a galloping track but the incline from the last turn to the winning pole proves quite testing. If you had backed every front runner at Gowran Park since 2009, you would have made 821.40 for every £1 staked. Gowran Park also has the highest strike rate for front runners in Ireland (taking both flat and jumps into consideration) with a 20.98% win rate. On the flip side, held up runners naturally find it difficult to win.

Front runners have been profitable to follow over most, if not at all distances on the flat. On the flat, front runners win on average roughly 1 in every 4 races and are still consistently profitable to follow throughout the years. A held-up horse is also 5 times less likely to win than a front runner. If you had backed every front runner over 7f - 1 mile since 2009, for example (8+ runner handicaps), you would have earned a win P&L of 345.25. The front running bias is stronger on good to firmer ground.

The jumps course produces similar results to the flat in terms of pace. Front runners are again profitable to follow on the hurdle and chase course. Front runners have a 17.6% strike rate on the hurdle and chase course and have been very profitable to follow (win P&L of 237.46) - both figures are the highest in Ireland. In 8+ runners (handicaps and non-handicaps) for example, front/prominent runners grouped have won 75.2% of races in comparison to held up/mid div runners.

IS THERE A DRAW BIAS AT GOWRAN PARK RACECOURSE?

An inside draw is generally more favourable at Gowran Park. There are more races over 7f and 1 mile than the longer distances. The results are pretty much the same in handicaps and non-handicaps. But focusing solely on 8+ runner handicaps, the lower the draw, the better chance of winning. Over 7f, for example, stalls 1-3 have win rates of 11.54%, 15.09% and 12.15% respectively. All 3 stalls also have positive PRB (Percentage of rivals beaten) figures relative to the remaining stall numbers. The turn comes quite quickly over 7f so it is important to break well and get an early position. It is interesting that stall 2 fares better than stall 1 here and is in fact profitable to follow (33.13 win P&L). Perhaps if runners from stall 1 don’t break well, they can get squeezed out. From a pace/draw perspective, high drawn front runners have a 37.50% win rate (draw/pace combination heat map below), which would argue that pace is a more important variable than draw.

The low draw bias is similar over 1 mile. But stalls 1-3 don’t have such a strong bias in comparison to 7f. In 8+ runner handicaps, stall 1 has in fact been profitable to follow since 2009. There is a similar story over 1 mile but the field have a longer distance to travel to the first turn so it allows the mid to higher stalls more of a chance to get a position. In saying that, stalls 1-5 have a particularly better strike rate than the remaining groups of stalls.

WHO ARE THE TOP TRAINERS AT GOWRAN PARK RACECOURSE?

Top flat racing trainers at Gowran Park

It is no surprise to see Aidan O’Brien the top trainer overall at Gowran with a 19.94% strike rate. However Ger Lyons and Willie Mullins are close behind with 18.99% and 18.75% respectively. Over the last 2 years Johnny Murtagh has seen the best win rate with an incredible 23.64%. Johnny has also been profitable to follow in that period with a win P&L of 40.83, the majority of his success has been in handicaps.

Top jumps racing trainers at Gowran Park

Willie Mullins has an incredible 32.69% win rate and has seen 54.29% of his runners in the places. His win rate increases to 38.43 in non-handicap races. In handicap races, Willie Mullins has also been profitable to follow with a win P&L of 10.5. John Walsh has been the most profitable to follow with a win P&L of 50. His last winner however was in 2016.

WHO ARE THE TOP JOCKEYS AT GOWRAN PARK RACECOURSE?

Top flat jockeys at Gowran Park

Former jockey Donnacha O’Brien has the best strike rate over the last 10 years with 21.85%, followed by Pat Smullen with a 20.13% win rate. Of the current jockeys, Colin Keane leads the way with a 17.87% strike rate. Donnacha also leads the way in handicaps with a 20.75% strike rate. He was however not profitable to follow. The most profitable jockey to follow in handicaps over the last 10 years is Danny Sheehy who has a 12.96% strike rate and win P&L of 37.5.

Top jump jockeys at Gowran Park

Patrick Mullins, JJ Codd and Ruby Walsh have great records at Gowran Park with 35.14%, 34.78% and 33.33% respectively. In handicap races, Sean Flanagan has been the most profitable to follow with a win P&L of 29.5.

*Figures correct as of 07/09/2020