Wexford racecourse is located in the South East of Ireland and although formerly a course that hosted both flat and national hunt racing, Wexford now exclusively hosts jumps racing fixtures.

Wexford has undergone some extreme transformations in recent years, notably in 2015 it was decided to change the course from being right handed to left handed. Then in 2016 flat racing was discontinued.

Wexford Course Characteristics

Wexford (now left handed) is a rectangular track that is around nine furlongs in length and the course is undulating in nature. The course now has a slight uphill finish. Since the changes were made to the course it is now considered fairer than it was and the fences aren’t the most difficult to negotiate.

Wexford Top Jockeys

Paul Townend and Mark Walsh are the leading Wexford jockeys since 2009, the pair have ridden 29 and 22 winners respectively at the time of writing. The only jockey with more wins is the retired Ruby Walsh who won here 31 times during the same period.

Simon Torrens has the best win strike rate here from the riders with five or more wins at this venue. Torrens has won 5 of his 21 races which gives him a 23.81% win percentage. Paul Townend is just behind Torres with a win percentage of 21.97% (from a much bigger data sample).

Ricky Doyle provides the biggest win PL of all the jockeys with five or more wins here since 2009. Backing his rides blind would have produced a win PL of 78.75 in the given time frame. Simon Torrens is next best with a win PL of 62.5 at Wexford.

Wexford Top Trainers

Willie Mullins is the top Wexford trainer according to the number of wins here since 2009. At the time of writing Mullins has an impressive 37 wins from 107 runners which is a win strike rate of 34.58%. That win percentage is also the best on display at Wexford currently, some way clear of Michael Hourigan who has a win percentage of 26.09%.

The best returns at Wexford in the given time frame are provided by Conor O’Dwyer who has a win PL of 14.5 sine 2009. That is narrowly more than the 12.5 from Oliver McKiernan.

Wexford Pace Bias

The hurdle track at Wexford appears to display a pace bias towards runners that are ridden closer to the pace.

The win percentage, place percentage, win PL, each way PL and IV all improve the closer to the pace a runner is ridden. The data for front runners is impressive with a 15.05% win ratio and a 62.77 win PL. It’s pretty clear from the data that the more patiently ridden you are, the less chance you have of winning or running well over hurdles at Wexford.

Is there a similar pace bias at Wexford over the larger obstacles?

It’s a fairly similar story with a bias towards those that race nearer the pace early on at Wexford. The bias is perhaps not quite as strong, with lower win percentages, win PL and IV for front runners on the chase course compared to the hurdle course but once again we do see decreasing figures the further back in the field a horse is ridden. It’s pretty clear that over both codes there is a bias towards early pace at Wexford.

*All stats and data provided above were taken on 11/02/21.