Cork – A Guide To Irish Flat Racecourses

Cork Racecourse

Cork Racecourse is an oval, undulating, right handed track. The first section of the course is fairly uphill before they race down the descent during the middle section of the track before reaching a stiff incline which occurs after the final turn and is around two and a half furlongs in length before reaching the winning post. It is one of nine courses held in the Munster region of Ireland. The circuit is around ten furlongs in length.

The venue is a dual purpose course hosting both Flat and Jump Racing, although the better type of races is part of the Jumps racing program.

Like Bellestown racecourse, it also provides great scenic views, where the   Comeragh Mountains can be seen from the racetrack.

Surprisingly, despite its beauty location wise they only hold one summer meeting which takes place the month of June and occurs in the evening.

Most of their race meetings either occur in the early months of the year (before summer) or from around Autumn time and throughout the winter but before the turn of the following calendar year.

They do not accommodate any flat races with a distance of five furlongs and up to including nine furlongs. The minimum trip is over nine and a half furlongs whilst the longest flat race is raced over seventeen furlongs. So with no sprint or route distance races in operation, there is no clear draw bias in operation which is also backed up by statistical evidence for races over a longer trip.

What is interesting from the research carried out, is the record of favourites in handicap races. If you had backed every runner that was at the head of the betting market in these races then you would be showing a small profit to starting price, as the record below shows;

Bets: 92  Wins:26  Strike rate:26.26% P/L 9.54

So if you like to lay favourites using the exchanges, then this may be one of the few courses you may wish to avoid. A further breakdown of the above statistics has also revealed that backing horses that are Co-Favourites are profitable over time.

Horses that are prominent in the betting market have a better overall return than would be expected in relation to the same set of circumstances at other courses.