Laytown is one of the most unique racecourses in the world with racing taking place once a year under rules on a beach. Laytown is situated in County Meath, 45km north of Dublin and racing has been taking place at Laytown for over 150 years.

Racing takes place in September on an annual basis. There are no permanent facilities or enclosures actually situated at the course, everything is erected ahead of each meeting and dismantled after.

Since an accident in 1994 several health and safety changes were made to the racing at Laytown. Racing had taken place over as far as two miles however all races now take place at either 6f or 7f on a straight track. There has also been a reduction in field sizes too.

Laytown Course Characteristics

Laytown is a near flat, straight course run on a tidal beach. The wet sand can ride fairly firm so fast ground horses are often favoured.

Laytown Top Jockeys

Colin Keane and Shane Foley are currently the top jockeys at Laytown with six wins and three wins respectively. Given Laytown only races once a year we don’t really get to see what jockeys are most dominating at the course due to so few races and so little data.

Laytown Top Trainers

Jamie Osbourne has quickly become a trainer to follow at Laytown due to his association with the Melbourne 10, a group of owners who buy some horses specifically to race here at Laytown. No one trainer has had more winners since 2009 than the five produced by Jamie Osbourne. Ger Lyons also has five winners at Laytown at the time of writing.

Laytown Draw Bias

With relatively small field sizes at Laytown and very few meetings it is difficult to make a case for there being a strong draw bias at Laytown. The runners race in a straight line on sand that is different every year, albeit similar. The PRB (Percentage of Rivals Beaten) figures favour high draws over both 6f and 7f but it’s highly likely that is simply down to a small sample size and in the coming years it will gradually even out.

Laytown Pace Bias

Over both 6f and 7f hold up horses perform poorly at Laytown. At the same time runners that have made the running have been most profitable to follow which is a pretty strong indication of a pace bias towards front runners at Laytown. We don’t have a huge amount of pace data to examine for Laytown but what pace data we do have suggests a front running bias here.