Punchestown racecourse is the home of the Punchestown Festival, Ireland’s premier race meeting held every April. The Punchestown Festival includes no less than 12 Grade 1 races and signals the end of the Irish jumps season. Punchestown hosts national hunt racing exclusive and there are a total of 17 fixtures each year at the course.

Punchestown racecourse is situated very close to Naas, 30km south of Dublin. The course is not completely reliant on the Festival for top quality racing, they also host the Morgiana Hurdle which is run in November and also the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase which takes place each December.

Punchestown Course Characteristics

Punchestown is a right handed racecourse. It is a galloping track that is undulating in nature with a steady climb over the final five furlongs. There are 11 fences in a circuit and the fences are considered very fair – good jumpers should have few problems negotiating them. Punchestown as a cross-country course with a variety of banks and other obstacles. The cross-country course is a long and twisting one with both left and right handed turns.

Punchestown Top Jockeys

Ruby Walsh leads the way here in terms of wins since 2009 but since he’s no longer riding it is Davy Russell who emerges as the top jockey currently riding. Russell has 99 wins at the time of writing and a strike rate of 17%. Next best is Paul Townend who has 79 wins and a win strike rate of 17.21, slightly better than that of Davy Russell.

The best win strike rate here belongs to Patrick Mullins. He has won with 26.54% of his mounts and he’s been profitable to follow too, providing a Win PL of 40.17.

Punchestown Top Trainers

Willie Mullins is a real standing dish here with a whopping 318 wins at the time of writing since 2009. That puts him well clear of Gordon Elliott who is next best with 141 wins, less than half of the number of wins Mullins has had as a trainer at Punchestown.

Mullins also has the best win strike rate here of any trainer (24.04%) but backing all his runners to level stakes leads to a loss as his are generally well found in the market. Better value may be found with Harry Fry, who has the second best strike rate of 23.81%, only slightly short of the figure provided by Mullins, and his runners generate a Win PL at Punchestown of 22.

Punchestown Pace Bias

Over hurdle the pace bias at Punchestown is with those that race closer to the pace.

Every metric points to front runner doing best of all and offering best value here, followed by prominent racers, with mid division and held up lagging well behind.

We also see a bias towards early pace over fences at Punchestown.

Front runners have been profitable to back blind each way here, producing an EW PL of 35.72. The place percentages drop the further back in the field you are positioned so it certainly seems that front runners have a strong edge over hold up horses over both fences and hurdles at Punchestown.

*All stats and data provided above were taken on 28/01/21.