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Racecourse Guides›All Weather›Dundalk
Racecourse Guide

Dundalk
All Weather

Racecourse Road, Dundalk, County Louth · on the M1 between Dublin and Belfast

⬤ All Weather
Polytrack
Left-Handed
Floodlit

Circuit
1¼m oval — ten furlongs
Home straight
~2½f run-in
Bends
Long sweeping, left-handed
Surface
Polytrack 2007, refurbished 2015, relaid 2020
Direction
Left-handed
Fixtures
43 in 2026 (HRI) · Friday nights

Track Breakdown

What is Dundalk like as an all-weather track?

Track Character

Dundalk Stadium is — for now — Ireland’s only all-weather racecourse, and its only floodlit one: a left-handed Polytrack oval on Racecourse Road in County Louth, just off the M1 between Dublin and Belfast. It opened on 26 August 2007 as Ireland’s first floodlit all-weather track, on the site of a turf course that had staged racing, National Hunt included, from 1889 until closure in 2001. It is also — genuinely unusually — a dual venue: on Friday fixtures the greyhounds go behind the hare about twenty minutes after the last horse race, and the winter Flat programme that runs at least weekly from October to March has its own nickname, the Friday Night Club. Horse Racing Ireland’s own fixture lists carry 43 Dundalk dates in 2026 against 41 run in 2025 — the 2025 list prints 43 but strikes two out — and the difference is exactly the two meetings transferred in from closed Tipperary. Either figure is light next to Wolverhampton’s eighty-odd.

The circuit is a flat oval of ten furlongs — a mile and a quarter — with long sweeping bends and a run-in of about two and a half furlongs; Horse Racing Ireland calls it a ten-furlong track, and Timeform and At The Races both give that circuit and that run-in. Five-furlong races start from a chute that joins the round course on the home bend, so sprinters face only a half-turn; everything from six furlongs up goes round properly. The configuration it most closely resembles among the British all-weather tracks is Southwell — longer than most, and fairer with it. A cutaway rail added in December 2013 addressed the old traffic problem: in Mick Kinane’s rider’s view for At The Races, “an excellent move” that “drastically reduced the number of hard-luck stories.”

The surface has a genuine history, and it matters for reading the data. Martin Collins Enterprises laid the original 2007 Polytrack, flipped and replenished it in July 2015 with the addition of stabilising fibres, after kickback “had been getting a bit worse” through the 2014/15 winter (Kinane again, verbatim). Then came the April 2019 welfare row: trainer Sheila Lavery boycotted the track, riders reported horses returning stiff and sore, and HRI’s chief executive urged replacement “sooner rather than later” while the track’s CEO and the IHRB maintained there was no welfare concern. Two further pieces of work followed, and they are routinely run together into one: 54 tonnes of extra fibre went into the old surface in the summer of 2019, ahead of the fixture on 20 September, as a stop-gap “to add further body and elasticity”; the Polytrack itself was then replaced outright between April and June 2020. Since reopening in July 2020 the riding reputation has been strong. It rides quick: Kinane’s standing note is that “it rides quite firm and some horses, particularly those that like a softer surface, won’t let themselves down on it.”

The black type clusters into autumn Fridays. The Group 3 Mercury Stakes over five furlongs in October is the headline — €60,000 in 2025, upgraded from Listed in 2018, its 2020 running dedicated to Pat Smullen, who rode both his first and his last winners here. Around it sit the Listed Diamond Stakes over 1m2f150y (Ireland’s first non-turf Group race when elevated in 2009, back to Listed since 2022; €45,000 in 2025), the Listed Star Appeal Stakes for juveniles over seven furlongs, the Listed Cooley Fillies Stakes over a mile in November, and the Listed Legacy Stakes for two-year-old sprinters. In early spring the Patton Stakes carries European qualifying points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby. Aidan O’Brien owns the honours boards — eight Diamond Stakes in all, six of them since the race moved to Dundalk in 2008, and seven Star Appeals — and ships in for exactly these races.

Dundalk’s monopoly has a countdown on it: Ireland’s second all-weather track is being built at Tipperary, targeted at November 2027, explicitly pitched at the 60% of Irish trainers based within 90 minutes of there rather than the long Friday-night haul to Louth. Until then, this is where Irish Flat racing lives all winter — the same horses meeting repeatedly on an unchanging surface, which is precisely what makes the track’s measured patterns worth learning.

Dundalk AW Course

  • Distances 5f (chute, half-turn start) then 6f, 7f, 1m, 1m2f150y black type and staying trips to 1m4f+ — all round at least one full bend
  • Home straight ~2½f — position off the final bend matters, but less brutally than at the sharpest AW tracks
  • Shape Flat throughout with long sweeping bends — the closest comparison is Southwell: longer and fairer than most synthetics
  • Run style Front-runners strongly favoured at 5f–6f; prominent racers the group to be in at 7f; much weaker signal at a mile and beyond
  • Draw Low a real edge at 5f in both surface eras; the old strong 6f low bias has faded since the 2020 relay; broadly fair from a mile up

Surface & History

  • Surface Wax-coated Polytrack — laid 2007, flipped and replenished July 2015, 54t of extra fibre into the old surface in 2019, fully replaced April–June 2020; all by Martin Collins
  • First Ireland’s first floodlit all-weather course — opened 26 August 2007
  • Dual venue Horse and greyhound racing share Friday nights — greyhounds ~20 minutes after the last
  • Before A turf course raced here 1889–2001, National Hunt included; a 2013 hybrid AW-jumps plan was never built
  • Rides Quite firm (Kinane) — horses that want a softer surface may not let themselves down on it

Key Betting Angles

  • Sprint pace 8+ runner handicaps, 12 Jul 2020–31 Aug 2022: front-runners won 9 of 43 at 5f (A/E 1.29, IV 2.35) and 14 of 65 at 6f (A/E 1.79, IV 2.70)
  • Date the data The 2020 resurfacing reset the 6f draw picture — pre-2020 tables are a different track
  • Field size Races are commonly capped at 14, and 53% of races in the 2020–22 sample carried the maximum — stall counts need the opportunities counted with them
  • Marnane 42 winners from 295 runners and +47.86 to £1 level stakes at SP across 2021–25 — a past result, not a standing edge
  • Lyons The front-running yard: 11 wins from 23 when leading, and the only 20%+ strike rate among the yards with 75+ runners in that window
  • O’Brien Ships for the black type: 17 wins from 59 runners (28.8%, A/E 1.06) over the same two years — concentrated in the marquee races
Pace Analysis

Do front-runners win at Dundalk?

Dundalk rewards early position, and the layout explains why. The five-furlong chute joins the round course on the home bend, so a sprint here is barely more than a run to the turn and the two-and-a-half-furlong run-in — a missed break is expensive over the minimum trip, especially from an inside stall in a strongly run race. Six furlongs carries the stronger measured front-running edge of the two, which the analyst who published those figures puts down — explicitly as conjecture, not as a finding — to the full turn coming into play where the 5f chute gives only a half one.

From seven furlongs the emphasis shifts from leading to travelling: prominent racers, rather than outright leaders, are the profile. At a mile the start sits in its own short chute at the head of the back straight, so a field has that whole straight to settle before the bend, and the draw thirds come out very even. That does not carry across every longer trip: the extended 1m2f starts much closer to the home bend, and Kinane’s note is that the turn comes up very quickly indeed after it. The cutaway rail added in December 2013 eased the congestion that used to produce hard-luck stories for anything held up, which is another reason to treat pre-2014 form here as a different track.

Run Style Bias — Qualitative Only

▲ Front-runners

Decisive at 5f–6f

▲ Prominent

The pick from 7f

─ Mid-division

Fair from 1m up

▼ Held up

Worst placed at 5f–6f

Treat these bars as directional — a reading of how the track rides rather than a statistical measurement. The surface was refurbished in 2015 and fully replaced in 2020, so old figures describe old ground.

Draw Analysis

Does the draw matter at Dundalk?

Draw Bias Strength by Distance
Stars rate the strength of a directional bias — ★ mild, ★★ moderate, ★★★ strong. Non-directional reads (Broadly Fair, No Clear Bias, Conflicting, Unstable) carry no stars.
Based on stalls-position draw data, read on the post-2020 surface — the April–June 2020 Polytrack replacement reset some older figures. Higher bar = stronger draw bias.
5f (chute)
Low Draw ★★★
Low Draw ★★★
6f
Low Draw ★
Low Draw ★ (post-2020)
7f
Conflicting
Conflicting
1m
Broadly Fair
Broadly Fair
1m2f +
Broadly Fair
Broadly Fair

Strong bias — material handicapping factor

Moderate lean — worth noting

Broadly fair — not a primary factor

5f (chute)
Low Draw ★★★
The one stable bias: stalls 1–5 won 69% of 8+ runner handicaps from 44.5% of the runners between 12 July 2020 and 31 August 2022 — and the 2018–20 picture was near-identical. The half-turn start makes the rail worth real lengths.
6f
Low Draw ★ — slight only
The era-split trip. Strong low bias on the old surface (lowest band PRB 0.59 across 2018–20); since the 2020 relay the same analyst reads only a slight lower-to-middle lean from nearly 60 races. Old 6f tables describe a track that no longer exists.
7f
Conflicting
Three published positions and no agreement: a small low edge in 2007–12 data, a marginal middle lean since the relay (PRB 0.54 middle, 0.50 high, 0.47 low), and one analyst who finds nothing of note from 7f up — while Kinane’s rider view backed low. Genuinely unresolved; don’t pay for a 7f draw opinion.
1m
Broadly Fair
Since the relay the draw thirds here are, in the analyst’s own words, “very even” — only 5f is left with a usable bias. The 2007–12 data showed a mild low lean (60/40 by halves), so this is another trip where the era matters.
1m2f +
Broadly Fair
Nothing worth reporting from nine furlongs up on either published read — though Kinane preferred low over the extended 1m2f, where the bend arrives quickly after the start. Class and run style dominate.
5f — draw × pace
Low, and using it
The two do not act separately. On post-relay percentage-of-rivals-beaten by draw third and run style, low + led reads 0.71 and low + prominent 0.63; low + held up is the weakest cell on the grid at 0.37, below even high + held up at 0.40. A high-drawn front-runner still reads 0.66. The stall only pays if the horse can use it.
All trips — the 2020 reset
Date Your Data
The full Polytrack replacement of April–June 2020 is the dividing line: any Dundalk draw statistic needs its era attached. Pre-2020 samples (including the classic 2007–12 tables) and post-2020 samples disagree at 6f and 1m.

Statistics · Since 2010

Which trainers and jockeys win most at Dundalk?

Source: Scott’s proprietary database covering Dundalk all-weather races, pulled 26 July 2026.

TrainerRunsWinsWin%PlacesPlace%A/EP/L
1 O’Brien, Joseph Patrick160323414.60%56735.37%0.86-358.56
2 Lyons, G M122620516.72%52042.41%0.88-188.67
3 McGuinness, Adrian188819610.38%56429.87%0.87-602.34
4 O’Brien, A P82218822.87%38847.20%0.93-159.24
5 Lynam, Edward111114613.14%41837.62%0.88-182.22
6 Marnane, David109611910.86%34031.02%0.86-236.26
7 McConnell, John C1719975.64%31618.38%0.74-696.92
8 Hogan, Denis Gerard1331977.29%27720.81%0.78-574.83
9 Bolger, J S7409713.11%24232.70%0.88-105.30
10 Oliver, Andrew6758512.59%19428.74%1.00-49.47
11 Slattery, Andrew908768.37%24627.09%0.79-178.50
12 Murtagh, J P6477211.13%22034.00%0.79-188.22
13 Feane, John James6137211.75%18329.85%0.85-133.18
14 Harrington, Mrs John802708.73%21126.31%0.69-312.32
15 Weld, D K5426011.07%16730.81%0.69-145.58
16 McCourt, T G866596.81%16619.17%0.84-226.37
17 Flynn, Patrick J5375910.99%13825.70%1.00-152.66
18 Collins, Tracey3844912.76%12532.55%0.97-85.56
19 Flynn, Paul W4554810.55%11625.49%1.03-114.23
20 O’Callaghan, M D4124811.65%15236.89%0.78-158.26

Dundalk AW, since 2010. A historical leaderboard of who has run here, not a list of who pays now. None of the twenty is in profit to SP, which on its own is unremarkable: starting prices carry the bookmakers’ overround, so a broad table losing to them is the default rather than a finding. On A/E, Paul W Flynn (1.03 from 455) is the only one above evens, with Andrew Oliver and Patrick J Flynn level at 1.00 and Tracey Collins 0.97. Joseph Patrick O’Brien leads on winners (234 from 1,603) and Aidan O’Brien converts hardest at 22.87% from 822. The weakest returns on turnover are Denis Gerard Hogan, 43.2% down across 1,331 runners, and John C McConnell, 40.5% down across 1,719 — worst by rate, not merely by cash.
Dundalk AW · Current trainers, since 2010
JockeyRunsWinsWin%PlacesPlace%A/EP/L
1 Keane, C T205932615.83%78638.17%0.90-414.77
2 Foley, Shane206723311.27%67832.80%0.84-563.18
3 Whelan, R P149919212.81%51134.09%0.97-300.06
4 Lordan, W M173718710.77%52430.17%0.82-302.90
5 Hayes, C D21241828.57%54925.85%0.77-848.77
6 McDonogh, D P159517410.91%51031.97%0.79-418.08
7 Lee, W J151516911.16%50833.53%0.82-398.52
8 Heffernan, J A14171238.68%33923.92%0.81-584.92
9 Carroll, G F14271067.43%33723.62%0.73-547.86
10 Cleary, R P1707885.16%27716.23%0.75-697.24
11 O’Connor, Donagh934848.99%23425.05%0.86-336.08
12 Coen, Ben M834839.95%24128.90%0.83-244.71
13 McCullagh, N G1285624.82%23818.52%0.60-735.89
14 McMonagle, Dylan B5156212.04%15129.32%0.82-73.66
15 Orr, Oisin5576110.95%15527.83%0.97-97.41
16 McAteer, L T608609.87%15225.00%0.91-124.02
17 Caffrey, Adam4896012.27%15732.11%1.01-94.30
18 Ryan, Gavin614589.45%17428.34%0.78-171.62
19 Roche, L F1113575.12%20818.69%0.67-524.52
20 Kearney, J4765411.34%14730.88%0.89+19.09

Dundalk AW, since 2010. Colin Keane is the dominant rider — 326 winners from 2,059 at 15.83%, the most winners and the best strike rate in the twenty, and at A/E 0.90 his record is fully in the price rather than ahead of it. Adam Caffrey has the best A/E in the twenty at 1.01, ahead of R P Whelan and Oisin Orr on 0.97, and J Kearney is the only rider here in profit to SP (+19.09 from 476 rides, a 4.0% return). At the other end the returns are severe rather than merely large: N G McCullagh is 57.3% down on turnover, L F Roche 47.1%, J A Heffernan 41.3%, R P Cleary 40.8% and C D Hayes 40.0% from 2,124 rides. No standalone riding angle comes out of a table this broad — it is a record of who rides here. Current riders only; jockeys who have retired since 2010 are excluded.
Dundalk AW · Current riders, since 2010
Sire Statistics · Since 2010

Which sires supply the most Dundalk winners?

Source: Scott’s proprietary database covering Dundalk all-weather races, pulled 26 July 2026.

SireRunsWinsWin%PlacesPlace%A/EP/L
1 Footstepsinthesand1048898.49%29227.86%0.76-438.23
2 Galileo (IRE)5728615.04%19534.09%0.85-123.16
3 Holy Roman Emperor (IRE)858849.79%23727.62%0.86-203.39
4 Invincible Spirit (IRE)7568310.98%23430.95%0.89-189.69
5 Kodiac949818.54%24325.61%0.78-390.05
6 Dark Angel (IRE)7537910.49%23831.61%0.75-291.64
7 Dandy Man (IRE)1032686.59%22922.19%0.69-532.31
8 Acclamation690618.84%17024.64%0.84-208.84
9 Exceed And Excel (AUS)5665810.25%17330.57%0.78-232.81
10 Teofilo (IRE)4485512.28%13429.91%0.96-61.18
11 Elzaam (AUS)543539.76%14426.52%0.90-97.78
12 Mehmas (IRE)3845313.80%11730.47%1.10-20.71
13 Iffraaj504469.13%13927.58%0.79-123.11
14 No Nay Never (USA)4054511.11%11829.14%0.84-85.20
15 Shamardal (USA)3374312.76%11534.12%0.86-18.53
16 War Front (USA)1674124.55%8852.69%0.99-29.06
17 Fastnet Rock (AUS)3603910.83%10830.00%0.87-139.05
18 Lawman (FR)439378.43%10624.15%0.85-99.99
19 Elusive City (USA)400369.00%11428.50%0.80-124.47
20 Slade Power (IRE)3153511.11%10232.38%0.92-67.33

Dundalk AW, since 2010. None of the twenty is in profit to SP, but the A/E column is not uniform: Mehmas leads at 1.10 (53 winners from 384, and only 5.4% down on turnover), with War Front 0.99 off a much smaller 167 runs, Teofilo 0.96, Slade Power 0.92 and Elzaam 0.90. Footstepsinthesand supplies the most winners (89 from 1,048) but at A/E 0.76 and 41.8% down on turnover; Dandy Man is the weakest of the twenty on both measures (A/E 0.69, 51.6% down). This is a volume-sorted, all-distance table with no split by trip, age or individual horse, so it cannot tell you a runner is unsuited — read it as how the market has priced each sire’s Dundalk runners, and nothing more.
Dundalk AW · Since 2010
How to read these tables. The figures are a first-party pull for this course and code covering runs since 1 January 2010, taken as a snapshot rather than updated live. A/E compares actual wins with the wins implied by starting price, so a figure above 1.00 means the group has won more often than its SP suggested. P/L is profit or loss to £1 win stakes at starting price.
Insider Knowledge

Betting Tips for Dundalk AW

🏁

Front-runners are the 5f–6f backbone

In 8+ runner handicaps between 12 July 2020 and 31 August 2022, front-runners won 9 of 43 at five furlongs (A/E 1.29, IV 2.35) and 14 of 65 at six (A/E 1.79, IV 2.70). Percentage of rivals beaten says the same — 0.64 against 0.40 for hold-up horses at 5f, 0.68 against 0.43 at 6f — and a 5f front-runner made the frame 46.5% of the time against 12.9% for one held up. Small samples, and run style is assigned after the race, so these measure the value of getting the lead rather than the return on backing one you expect to. Early position is still the most important tactical variable over the sprint trips.

📅

Date every draw stat you’re shown

The surface was completely replaced in mid-2020, and the analysis this page leans on splits its windows either side of that: 12 July 2020 to 31 August 2022 against 1 January 2018 to 31 March 2020, 8+ runner handicaps in both. The 5f low bias survived the relay; the strong old 6f low bias did not. A 2007–2012 draw table is archaeology, not form study.

📐

7f is where the draw opinions go to fight

A small low edge, a marginal middle lean, nothing of note at all — three published reads, three verdicts, and the rider’s view (Kinane: low helps, the bend comes quickly) makes a fourth answer. The one agreed 7f read is run style: prominent racers are the group to be in, at 12.5% and A/E 1.15 in the 2020–22 handicap sample against 10.9% and A/E 1.01 for pure front-runners.

👑

O’Brien ships for the marquee Fridays

Ballydoyle’s Dundalk record is concentrated, not scattergun: 17 wins from 59 runners (28.8%, A/E 1.06) between July 2020 and August 2022, eight Diamond Stakes in all with six of them since the race came to Dundalk, and seven Star Appeals. When the autumn black type comes round, the operation is there to win it. That A/E is a two-year past result, not a standing market edge.

🏠

The course specialists have paid before

David Marnane trains at Bansha in County Tipperary, so he is a Dundalk specialist rather than a local one: 42 winners from 295 runners and +47.86 to £1 level stakes at SP over the 2021–25 calendar years — a separate five-year count, not the since-2010 pull behind the table above, which is why his two sets of figures differ. Timeform’s own course table, read on 24 August 2026, has him 46 winners from 328 Dundalk runners across the 2021 to 2026 seasons, and in profit on them too: a longer window, the same shape. The 2025 Cooley Fillies Stakes with Aviatrice fits the pattern. Ger Lyons is the front-running yard — 11 wins from 23 Dundalk leaders in the 2020–22 sample, and the only 20%+ strike rate among the yards with 75 or more runners in it. Both are records already run: profiles to respect rather than prices to take.

🔢

Field size is part of the draw read

Dundalk races are commonly capped at 14 runners. In the 2020–22 sample 53% of races carried that maximum and more than 80% were contested by twelve or more, with handicap fields averaging 12.6 and non-handicaps 11.4. That matters for any stall-by-stall table you are shown: the highest stalls only exist in full fields, so raw win counts by stall are not comparable until the opportunities each one had are counted too.

🌡️

It rides firm — profile accordingly

Kinane’s standing surface note: “it rides quite firm and some horses, particularly those that like a softer surface, won’t let themselves down on it.” Treat a soft-ground turf performer’s Dundalk debut with caution until it has shown an aptitude for Polytrack — that is a rider’s read of the surface, not a measured debut trend. In extreme heat it has ridden slower — a rarity worth knowing exists.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Quoting pre-2020 draw tables as current. The April–June 2020 Polytrack replacement genuinely changed the track — the 6f low-draw bias that defined the old surface reads as only a slight lean since. Attach an era to every Dundalk statistic.
  • Treating the old kickback reputation as the current state. The 2014–19 concerns were real — a 2015 refurbishment, then a 2019 trainer boycott and welfare row — but the surface was fully replaced in 2020. Equally, the modern surface’s strong reputation is not a measurement: what a bettor can actually use is its measured pace and draw behaviour, not a ranking against other tracks.
  • Paying for a 7f draw opinion. Three published reads disagree at seven furlongs — a small low edge, a marginal middle lean, and nothing of note — and Kinane’s eye for low makes a fourth answer, so it is genuinely unresolved; lean on run style over the stall there.
Common Questions

Dundalk Stadium FAQs

Is there a draw bias at Dundalk?
Yes at five furlongs, faintly at six, and essentially none from a mile up — with one big caveat: the surface was completely replaced between April and June 2020, and the honest analysis splits either side of that line. Every exact figure here comes from 8+ runner handicaps between 12 July 2020 and 31 August 2022, set against the same filter for 1 January 2018 to 31 March 2020. The 5f low-draw edge survived intact (stalls 1–5 won 69% of those races from 44.5% of the runners, near-identical to before); the once-strong 6f low bias now reads as only a slight lower-to-middle lean; and 7f is genuinely disputed — three published reads give three verdicts, and Mick Kinane’s rider view (low helps, the bend comes quickly) adds a fourth answer. From a mile up the draw thirds are, in the analyst’s own words, “very even”.
What kind of track is Dundalk?
A flat, left-handed, floodlit Polytrack oval of ten furlongs — a mile and a quarter — with long sweeping bends and a run-in of about two and a half furlongs; Horse Racing Ireland calls it a ten-furlong track, and Timeform and At The Races both give that circuit and that run-in. Five-furlong races start from a chute joining the round course on the home bend, so sprinters face only a half-turn. Among the British synthetics its configuration most resembles Southwell: longer than most, and fairer with it. It rides quite firm, and it is Ireland’s only all-weather and only floodlit course — a monopoly that ends when Tipperary’s new track opens, targeted at November 2027.
What are the big races at Dundalk?
The autumn Fridays carry the black type: October’s Group 3 Mercury Stakes over 5f (€60,000 in 2025, won by Spartan Arrow) is the headline, alongside the Listed Diamond Stakes over 1m2f150y (Ireland’s first non-turf Group race in its 2009–22 Group 3 era; Phantom Flight won the 2025 renewal), the Listed Star Appeal Stakes for two-year-olds over 7f, November’s Listed Cooley Fillies Stakes over a mile, and the Listed Legacy Stakes for juvenile sprinters. In early spring the Patton Stakes carries points on the European Road to the Kentucky Derby. Aidan O’Brien has won eight Diamonds in all — six of them since the race moved to Dundalk in 2008 — and seven Star Appeals; the marquee races are his target.
Which trainers and jockeys do best at Dundalk?
The course specialists, on past figures. David Marnane put up 42 winners from 295 runners for +47.86 to £1 level stakes at SP over the 2021–25 calendar years — a separate five-year count, not the since-2010 pull behind the table above, which is why his two sets of figures differ, and Timeform’s own course table has him 46 from 328 and in profit across 2021 to 2026 — and took the 2025 Cooley Fillies Stakes with Aviatrice; he trains at Bansha in County Tipperary, so he is a Dundalk specialist rather than a local one. Ger Lyons is the track’s front-running yard: 11 of his 23 Dundalk leaders won in the July 2020 to August 2022 sample, he has taken the Cooley Fillies Stakes four times, and he posted the only 20%+ strike rate among the yards with 75 or more runners in that window. Aidan O’Brien’s 28.8% from 59 over the same two years is sharper still, but he fell below that 75-runner cut, which is why the two figures sit side by side rather than contradicting each other. Among the riders no standalone angle comes out of the since-2010 table: Adam Caffrey holds the best A/E at 1.01 and J Kearney is the only one in profit, but neither is a system.
When does Dundalk race?
Effectively year-round, but the meat of it is the winter “Friday Night Club” — at least weekly floodlit Friday cards from October through March, with the greyhounds following about twenty minutes after the last horse race on dual nights. Horse Racing Ireland’s fixture list carries 43 Dundalk dates in 2026 against the 41 that survived on the 2025 list, and the two extra are the meetings transferred in from closed Tipperary: 23 April and 26 May. The black-type cluster runs late September to early November.

Explore

Other All-Weather Tracks

Lingfield Park

Polytrack — sharp, undulating, pace-rewarding.

Kempton Park

Polytrack — prominent racers and a handy draw.

Chelmsford City

Tight Polytrack — pace and a low draw.

Newcastle

Tapeta — galloping straight mile, sharp round track.

Southwell

Tapeta — the configuration Dundalk most resembles.

Wolverhampton

Tight Tapeta — speed from a low draw.

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