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Racecourse Guides›Flat›Great Yarmouth
Racecourse Guide

Great Yarmouth
Flat

North Denes, Norfolk · 70 miles east of Newmarket on the Norfolk coast

⬤ Flat Turf
Turf
Left-Handed
Galloping Oval
John Musker Fillies’ Stakes Listed

Round Course
1m5f oval
Straight Course
1m relaid 2015
Direction
Left-handed
Surface
Turf (sandy)
Shape
Galloping oval
Key Race
John Musker Listed
Track Breakdown

What is Great Yarmouth racecourse like?

Track Character

Great Yarmouth – or simply Yarmouth to the racing world – sits at the North Denes on the Norfolk coast, a stone’s throw from the sandy beach and only 70 miles from Newmarket. The course is a narrow left-handed oval of roughly one mile and five furlongs with a 5-furlong run-in (one of the longest in Britain) and a separate one-mile straight chute that joins the home straight at the start of the run-in. Despite the sharp bends the track is fundamentally galloping in nature. It is perfectly flat apart from a slight fall just before the run-in. The free-draining sandy loam drains exceptionally well, so the going is rarely truly testing and is regularly officially good or faster.

Yarmouth’s defining feature is its relationship with Newmarket. The proximity makes it the natural choice for HQ trainers wanting racecourse experience for promising horses. The maiden and novice races here are routinely of high quality. Dubai Millennium – the 2000 Dubai World Cup winner who at his peak had a Timeform rating of 140 – won his 2yo maiden debut at Yarmouth in October 1998 for David Loder. Ouija Board, the seven-time Group 1-winning filly, also won her maiden here. Raven’s Pass (2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner) is another graduate. The pattern is consistent: the proximity makes Yarmouth a convenient place for Newmarket yards to give a promising juvenile its education away from the major HQ meetings.

The straight mile was relaid in 2015 to remove the previous undulations. The home straight is now considered one of the best in the country – level, fair, and giving jockeys ample time to organise from the turn-in. The relaying has materially changed the draw bias picture on the straight course, and this page’s draw section is built on a first-party pull made after it rather than on the older published work. What the relaying did not do is level the draw everywhere. The straight six furlongs carries the strongest low-draw bias we measure here, and splitting our sample either side of the work shows it grew rather than faded — the low third ran at an impact value of 1.23 across the 60 qualifying handicaps from 2010 to 2014 and 1.41 across the 129 since, with the high third falling from 1.03 to 0.66. The 1m2f round leans low as well, while the longer round-course trips do not support a directional call. Note also that Yarmouth has no round mile — every race from five furlongs to a mile is run on the straight course — so a “round mile” draw figure for this track is describing something that does not exist. See the Draw Analysis below. Former jockey Jason Weaver, in the At The Races View From the Saddle Yarmouth guide, captures the current state of the course:

“If the recent relaying work at Yarmouth restores the course to what it used to be, which is obviously the idea, it could be one of the best galloping tracks in Britain. Yes, it had developed ridges, hence the changes they’ve made, but it’s a lovely fair course. The home straight is big and long, giving jockeys plenty of time from the turn in, and, if it’s going to be even flatter than of old when the relaying is complete, you might just get a few hard-luck stories tight on the far rail. Otherwise, it’s beautiful to ride.”
— Jason Weaver, former jockey (At The Races View From the Saddle)

Weaver’s hard-luck-on-the-far-rail caveat is worth carrying through to handicap analysis, and note how he put it — he expected the relaid track to throw up “a few hard-luck stories tight on the far rail”, which is a positional risk to watch for on a replay rather than a measured bias. Where the draw does bite here it is at the straight six furlongs and over 1m2f, and those reads are in the Draw Analysis below. At the straight five furlongs specifically, published run-style work has Yarmouth front-runners doing unusually badly and rewards horses ridden with restraint. That finding belongs to the five-furlong race distance rather than to the home straight, which the round-course races share while reading the other way — the Pace Analysis below splits it by trip. The galloping geometry rewards big, long-striding types. That is the attribute to carry between tracks: work out whether a horse won here because it galloped and stayed on through a long straight, and value the form at courses asking the same question — rather than treating Yarmouth and Newmarket form as automatically interchangeable, which is not something we have measured.

Course Facts

  • Configuration Left-handed oval, narrow, ~1m5f circuit; a separate straight mile stages every race from 5f to 1m — there is no round mile
  • Run-in 5 furlongs from the turn into the home straight – one of the longest in Britain
  • Topography Perfectly flat with a slight fall just before the run-in
  • Surface Free-draining sandy loam — going rarely soft, and the ground staff water heavily through summer, so check the going, the rail position and the published stalls position on the day, which differs by trip here
  • 2015 relaying Home straight relaid to remove ridges; now one of the best straight miles in the country

Newmarket Connection

  • Distance 70 miles from Newmarket via A47 and A11 – heavily used by HQ yards
  • Maiden quality Routinely stronger than the prize money suggests, on Newmarket trainer support
  • Dubai Millennium Won 2yo maiden debut here October 1998 for David Loder – peak Timeform 140
  • Ouija Board 7x Group 1 winner; won her maiden at Yarmouth before going global
  • Raven’s Pass 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner; another Yarmouth maiden graduate

Run Style & Draw

  • Draw bias (post-2015) Strong low-draw bias over the straight 6f, and low again at 1m2f; the straight 5f is contested — our sample and the published work disagree
  • Horse type Big, long-striding gallopers — the type that also handles Newmarket’s Rowley Mile, though the two tracks are not the same test
  • Pace At the straight 5f, hold-up horses have struck at three times the front-runner rate (Renham, 2015–22); no call at 6f–1m, and Timeform favours prominent racers round to 1m2f
  • Weaver caveat “A few hard-luck stories tight on the far rail” — his expectation of the relaid track, and a replay check rather than a measured bias
  • Form transfer Ask what the horse did here — galloping power over a long straight travels; we have not measured course-to-course transfer rates

Calendar & History

  • Fixtures Allocated 24 fixtures for 2026, April to October, plus Chelmsford City’s transferred 18 June meeting
  • Key race John Musker Fillies’ Stakes — Listed, 1m2f, fillies and mares 3yo+, the headline of the Eastern Festival
  • Eastern Festival 15–17 September 2026 — three days, with the John Musker on the Wednesday
  • Owner Northern Racing became majority shareholder in 2001; Arena Racing Company has run the course since the 2012 merger of Arena Leisure and Northern Racing
  • Lord Nelson Grandstand Built 2004, under Northern Racing investment
Pace Analysis

Do front-runners win at Great Yarmouth?

Yarmouth is wide, flat and fair, and everything from five furlongs to a mile runs on the straight course without a bend to negotiate. On a track like that any advantage to being in front is about gate speed, keeping out of trouble and not wasting energy — there is no geometry doing the work.

The important caveat is the 2015 relay. The straight was relevelled and resurfaced, so figures from before the work describe a course that no longer exists — the same reason this page treats older draw advice as out of date. Beyond that, the honest answer differs by distance rather than being one course-wide rule.

The straight five furlongs is the one with real evidence, and it runs against the grain. Dave Renham’s run-style study for geegeez, covering UK racing from 2015 to 2022 in handicaps of eight or more runners, found that at Yarmouth over five furlongs “the strike rate for hold up horses [is] three times that of front runners”, with hold-up runners posting an A/E of 1.04; he records hold-up A/E above 1.00 at five of the eight distances run here and reads that as the patient ride being underbet. ⚠ Run-style figures classify a horse by how it was ridden on the day, so they measure what happened to horses that ended up in front — not the return on backing one you expect to lead.

At six and seven furlongs and the straight mile we make no call. We hold no first-party run-style split for this course, and it does not follow that a finding at the minimum trip carries up the distances.

On the round course the published view is the other way. Timeform’s course assessment says that Yarmouth has “sharpish bends, and prominent racers are favoured on the round course at distances up to a mile and a quarter”. Beyond 1m2f neither we nor the sources we have read make a call.

Run Style Bias — by distance

▼ Front-runners, straight 5f

A third of the hold-up strike rate (Renham, 2015–22)

▲ Held up, straight 5f

Three times the front-runner strike rate; A/E 1.04

─ 6f–1m straight

No call — we hold no split for these trips

▲ Prominent, round to 1m2f

Timeform: prominent racers favoured

The five-furlong rows are Dave Renham’s published figures for geegeez (UK, 2015–2022, handicaps of eight or more runners); the round-course row is Timeform’s course assessment. The middle row is a statement that we have no measurement, not a finding of no bias. The 2015 relay reset the straight course, so any pace figure predating it describes a different track.

Draw Analysis

Does the draw matter at Great Yarmouth?

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, Not Measured) carry no stars, and the final row is a coursecraft note rather than a measurement at all.
Based on stalls-position draw data. Higher bar = stronger draw bias.
5f straight
Conflicting
Conflicting
6f straight
Low Draw ★★★
Low Draw ★★★
7f straight
Broadly Fair
Broadly Fair
1m straight
Broadly Fair
Broadly Fair
1m2f round
Low Draw ★★
Low Draw ★★
1m3f-1m5f round
No Clear Bias
No Clear Bias
1m1f & 1m6f round
Not Measured
Not Measured
All trips – far rail
Coursecraft note
Coursecraft note

Strong bias — material handicapping factor

Moderate lean — worth noting

Broadly fair — not a primary factor

The reads below are measured in handicaps of eight or more runners, with the draw cut into thirds inside each field size, on the post-2015 course — and each one is run again across the full period since 2010 as a control. Trips are named for the band actually queried, and note that at Yarmouth the 7f and the mile are both run on the STRAIGHT course: there is no round mile here. The relaying did not level the draw everywhere. The straight seven and the straight mile are genuinely fair, but the straight six furlongs carries a strong low-draw bias that has grown since the relay rather than disappearing, and the 1m2f round leans the same way. Where a trip is described as having changed at the relay, that is measured by splitting our own sample either side of the work, not by comparing it with a longer sample that contains it. The straight five furlongs is the one trip where our sample and the published work disagree, and the card says so rather than picking a side.

5f straight
Conflicting
We make no directional call at the minimum trip, because our sample and the published work point opposite ways. Ours: across 53 handicaps of eight or more runners since the relay the high third of the draw runs at an impact value of 1.25 against 1.03 for the low, and 1.19 against 1.01 across 80 races since 2010 — but the draw-quarter instrument on the same races never confirmed it, returning A/E 0.75 / 0.97 / 0.82 / 0.96 from low to high against a course baseline of 0.88. Against that, Dave Renham’s 2021–25 study for geegeez, on 42 Yarmouth five-furlong handicaps of seven or more runners, gives the lowest third a percentage of rivals beaten of 0.56 and concludes that “if betting at Yarmouth over five this year, we should definitely prefer to be drawn lower than higher”. drawbias.com, reading 2024–25 handicaps for three-year-olds and up, splits it by ground instead: high on good or faster, low when it is soft. ⚠ We previously said the high lean sharpened as the ground eased; we hold no going split for this course, and that is the one published read that does, pointing the other way. The claim is withdrawn, not reversed. It is also the thinnest sample of the straight trips. ⚠ And check where the stalls actually are: Yarmouth sets its stalls position per meeting and it differs by trip — the At The Races card for 28 July 2026 lists the straight races as Straight Centre, the 1m2f as Inside and the 1m6f as Stands Side. A historical draw tendency should always be read alongside the position published on the day.
6f straight
Low Draw ★★★
Six-furlong races on the straight chute carry a strong and persistent low-draw bias, and it is the single most actionable draw fact on this page. Across 129 handicaps of eight or more runners since the relay, the low third of the draw runs at an impact value of 1.41 against 0.66 for the high. It widens with field size: in fields of eleven or more the split is 1.78 against 0.40, on 44 races. Splitting the sample either side of the relaying shows the bias grew rather than appearing: across the 60 qualifying handicaps from 2010 to 2014 the thirds ran 1.23 / 0.72 / 1.03, against 1.41 / 0.92 / 0.66 since. The direction was already there and the separation widened markedly. ⚠ 60 races is a thin pre-relay sample, so treat the change in strength as less certain than the direction itself. It is independently replicated: racingalpha.co.uk’s 5f–6f band, 146 races from June 2023 to June 2026, has the low third at an impact value of 1.37 and an A/E of 1.22 against 0.70 and 0.84 for the high. ⚠ Two honest caveats. That band pools the sprint trips, and Yarmouth stages far more six-furlong handicaps than five, so it cannot settle the 5f question above. And drawbias.com, on the much shorter 2024–25 window, finds no six-furlong bias at all — this is a multi-year historical finding, not a law. Do not carry it onto the straight 5f. That trip starts from a different point on the same straight course, and the evidence there is conflicting enough that we make no directional call at all — so the six-furlong finding is not a reason to expect either direction over five.
7f straight
Broadly Fair
Seven furlongs is genuinely fair: across 147 handicaps of eight or more runners since the relay the three thirds of the draw finish at 0.94 / 1.02 / 1.04, and the since-2010 control agrees at 0.92 / 1.02 / 1.06 on 224 races. The one nuance is that in fields of eight to ten a mild high-draw lean shows through (1.12 against 0.85); it washes out in bigger fields. This is also the trip where the relaying shows up: across the 77 qualifying handicaps from 2010 to 2014 the thirds ran 0.87 / 1.03 / 1.10, a real high-draw lean, and it is gone from the 147 races since. That is a first-party finding rather than a restatement of the old published advice, and worth separating from it: At The Races’ own Yarmouth draw guide put the high-draw observation at five and six furlongs in 2008 and said that “on the straight course there is usually little in the draw”. Our pre-2015 seven-furlong lean is ours, on 77 races, and it is gone from the modern sample either way. racingalpha.co.uk reaches the same conclusion on its 7f–1m band — “no meaningful draw bias” across 189 races since June 2023.
1m straight
Broadly Fair
Every Yarmouth mile is run on the straight course — the round-course starts are 1m1f21y and beyond — and the draw is close to irrelevant over it: across 149 handicaps of eight or more runners since the relay the three thirds finish at 0.92 / 1.15 / 0.94, with the middle marginally best and neither end penalised. The since-2010 control on 215 races is flatter still at 0.96 / 1.06 / 0.98, so treat the middle-third edge as a feature of the shorter window rather than a rule. Nor is this something the relaying changed: the 66 qualifying handicaps from 2010 to 2014 were undirectional too, at 1.05 / 0.86 / 1.09. The mile did not become fair in 2015 — it already was. Pace and the run to the line matter more than stall number.
1m2f round
Low Draw ★★
The 1m2f round course is not draw-neutral. Across 113 handicaps of eight or more runners since the relay the low third runs at an impact value of 1.23 against 0.89 for the high, and the lowest quarter returns an A/E of 1.24 against a course baseline of 0.84 — the strongest market-adjusted draw figure this page measures. The since-2010 control agrees at 1.21 against 0.84 on 152 races, and in fields of eleven or more it widens to 1.42 against 0.47. racingalpha.co.uk replicates it independently over 100 races since June 2023, low third at an impact value of 1.18 and an A/E of 1.38 against 0.72 and 0.57 for the high. Stamina and the ability to act through the sharp bends still matter, but an inside draw is a real advantage over this trip. ⚠ The John Musker Fillies’ Stakes is run here, but it is a Listed race and these figures are drawn from handicaps only, so they are not evidence about it.
1m3f-1m5f round
No Clear Bias
The 1m3f-1m5f races were previously folded in with the 1m2f races above and given the same low-draw call. Measured on their own they do not support one. Across 52 handicaps of eight or more runners since the relay the thirds read 1.20 / 0.89 / 0.91, which looks low-leaning — but the draw-quarter instrument on the same races disagrees, running A/E 0.80 / 0.75 / 0.87 / 1.00 from low to high against a course baseline of 0.85, and the since-2010 control flattens to 1.07 / 0.97 / 0.96 on 77 races. Two instruments pointing opposite ways on a sample this size is not a call. Ride position and stamina are the reads here.
1m1f & 1m6f round
Not Measured
Yarmouth also stages handicaps at 1m1f21y and 1m6f17y — there was a 1m6f handicap here on 18 June 2026 — and neither distance falls inside any of the bands we pulled. On the same instrument, 41 of the course’s 684 qualifying handicaps since the relay sit outside the six bands above, and those are the races. We make no draw call at either trip, and a reader should not carry the 1m2f finding onto them: the band immediately above 1m2f already fails to reproduce it.
All trips – far rail
Coursecraft note, not a measured bias
Weaver expected the relaid track to produce “a few hard-luck stories tight on the far rail”: horses on the inside on the bend can get trapped behind tiring runners on the 5f run-in. That is his prospective read of the new surface and a positional risk to watch on a replay. It carries no star because it is not a draw bias and we have not measured it — it sits here because it is where a reader looks for position, not because it belongs on the same scale as the trips above.

The summary: Yarmouth post-2015 is not a draw-neutral track, and the older blanket high-draw advice for the straight course is out of date. Two trips carry a real low-draw bias — the straight six furlongs, strongly, and the 1m2f round, where the lowest quarter of the draw is the best market-adjusted figure on the page. The straight seven, the straight mile and the 1m3f-1m5f round measure fair or unsettled, the straight five furlongs is contested, and the 1m1f and 1m6f races fall outside every band we have pulled, so we make no call there. Alongside the draw, work the pace: the run-in is five furlongs, and published run-style work has front-runners doing unusually badly at the minimum trip while Timeform reads the round course the other way.

Statistics · Since 2010

Which trainers and jockeys win most at Great Yarmouth?

Source: FormDial data (multi-year Yarmouth flat aggregate). Pulled 26 July 2026. All columns available: Runs, Wins, Win%, A/E, P/L(SP). Rows 11-20 hidden by default.

TrainerRunsWinsWin%PlacesPlace%A/EP/L
1 Haggas, W J42811125.93%20547.90%1.02+49.29
2 Gosden, J H M3599927.58%18651.81%1.08+8.48
3 Bell, M L W4407617.27%15334.77%1.10-32.11
4 Varian, Roger2936120.82%14750.17%0.93-57.18
5 Simcock, D M3365817.26%11233.33%1.05+49.57
6 McBride, P J2304419.13%8235.65%1.44+156.47
7 Williams, S C4034110.17%12531.02%0.74-125.00
8 Dwyer, C A3494111.75%10530.09%0.95-49.62
9 Fanshawe, J R2784114.75%10136.33%0.88+15.94
10 Prescott, Sir Mark1593723.27%6540.88%1.07-42.48
11 Appleby, Charlie1193630.25%6957.98%0.91-10.39
12 Margarson, G G363359.64%7620.94%0.91-26.48
13 McEntee, P S3453510.14%8925.80%1.09+3.54
14 Feilden, Miss J447347.61%11625.95%0.76-171.79
15 Appleby, M350339.43%8724.86%0.84-85.82
16 Ryan, J347329.22%8424.21%1.00-84.76
17 Botti, M2863211.19%8228.67%0.83-89.42
18 Dunlop, E A L330319.39%8826.67%0.71-178.18
19 Walker, Ed1593018.87%5534.59%1.04+56.16
20 Boughey, George1592817.61%6943.40%0.88-20.71

Great Yarmouth Flat, since 2010. This is the friendliest trainer page in the library — the Newmarket yards treat Yarmouth as a proving ground and the strike rates are enormous. William Haggas has 111 winners from 428 at 25.93% for +£49.29 at an A/E of 1.02, and John Gosden 99 from 359 at 27.58% at 1.08 — Haggas level with his market price, Gosden modestly above it. Charlie Appleby strikes hardest of all at 30.25% from 119 — but at an A/E of 0.91, so his runners have historically won less often than their prices implied: a strike rate is not a price. The strongest market-adjusted record in the table belongs to Philip McBride, 44 winners from 230 at 19.13%, A/E 1.44 and +£156.47 — a historical outperformance rather than a system, but the biggest trainer profit here by a distance. Michael Bell (A/E 1.10) and David Simcock (+£49.57) have also cleared their price. The weakest against the market is Ed Dunlop, whose 330 runners have returned an A/E of 0.71 for a loss of £178.18 — the lowest A/E and the biggest loss in the table. Stuart Williams (403 runners, 10.17%, A/E 0.74, £125.00 down) and Julia Feilden (A/E 0.76) are the next two. ⚠ Julia Feilden now trains as Julia Birkett, jointly with her daughter Shelley as Birkett Racing; the row is her historic record under the solo licence.
Yarmouth Flat · Current trainers, since 2010
JockeyRunsWinsWin%PlacesPlace%A/EP/L
1 Sousa, Silvestre De4658919.14%19341.51%1.01+19.85
2 Spencer, Jamie4658618.49%18740.22%0.96-30.94
3 Moore, Ryan3068226.80%14748.04%1.02-47.24
4 Buick, William3437923.03%16046.65%0.92-25.88
5 Mitchell, Jack3846015.63%15841.15%1.03-19.70
6 Morris, Luke5195710.98%14327.55%0.80-187.48
7 Atzeni, Andrea3155417.14%10633.65%0.97-76.99
8 Cosgrave, Pat2994916.39%10836.12%1.13+112.30
9 Marquand, Tom2734817.58%9936.26%0.91-19.40
10 Havlin, Robert3054314.10%12039.34%0.84-38.74
11 Doyle, Hollie1944221.65%7840.21%1.21+53.42
12 Muscutt, D3364011.90%9728.87%0.93-6.17
13 Doyle, James1703922.94%8348.82%0.94-25.66
14 Queally, T P380379.74%9324.47%0.81-99.35
15 Murphy, Oisin2103717.62%9645.71%0.79-49.04
16 Egan, David3143511.15%9530.25%0.73-117.77
17 Ghiani, Marco2403313.75%7029.17%1.01-39.88
18 Callan, N2953210.85%10334.92%0.67-79.98
19 Shepherd, Callum2423112.81%8635.54%0.95-71.03
20 Donohoe, Stephen2372610.97%5924.89%0.92-61.25

Great Yarmouth Flat, since 2010. Silvestre De Sousa leads on winners (89 from 465) and is one of the few in profit at A/E 1.01 and +£19.85. Ryan Moore strikes hardest of the visitors at 26.80%, and that is a reason to respect his bookings rather than a price edge: his A/E is 1.02 and his rides have returned £47.24 down. The same goes for James Doyle (22.94%, A/E 0.94) and William Buick (23.03%, A/E 0.92) — high strike rates, no historical premium. Six of the twenty are above an A/E of 1.00, and two further down the table are clear of the rest: Pat Cosgrave has returned +£112.30 from 299 rides at A/E 1.13, and Hollie Doyle 21.65% from 194 at A/E 1.21, the strongest A/E among riders with 150 or more rides here. Luke Morris has the biggest level-stakes loss in the table — 519 rides, a 10.98% strike rate and £187.48 down — but he is not the weakest against the market: that is Neil Callan at A/E 0.67, with David Egan 0.73 and Oisin Murphy 0.79 also below Morris’s 0.80. Below the table, Brandon Wilkie has struck at 22.22% from 27 rides and Mr Jack Callan returned +£30.00 from 34 — books far too small to rate.
Yarmouth Flat · Current riders, since 2010
Sire Statistics · Since 2010

Which sires do best at Great Yarmouth?

Source: FormDial data (multi-year Yarmouth flat aggregate).

SireRunsWinsWin%PlacesPlace%A/EP/L
1 Oasis Dream3375315.73%11835.01%1.00-102.98
2 Kodiac3105016.13%10734.52%1.01-50.13
3 Dubawi (IRE)2244921.88%9040.18%0.98-59.40
4 Dark Angel (IRE)3264814.72%10632.52%0.97+125.76
5 Invincible Spirit (IRE)2704215.56%9836.30%0.91+18.73
6 Exceed And Excel (AUS)3124012.82%11035.26%0.86-6.72
7 Acclamation2823311.70%9132.27%0.80-16.65
8 Frankel1163126.72%4942.24%1.10+16.60
9 Mayson1732715.61%5833.53%1.02-28.34
10 Iffraaj2332510.73%6126.18%0.80-0.19
11 Sea The Stars (IRE)1492516.78%5436.24%0.84-32.40
12 Night Of Thunder (IRE)1302519.23%6046.15%1.06-12.24
13 Showcasing243249.88%5823.87%0.83-80.66
14 Kheleyf (USA)2182411.01%6127.98%1.01+19.27
15 Lope De Vega (IRE)1682414.29%5331.55%0.79-73.09
16 Shamardal (USA)1662414.46%5633.73%0.82-25.47
17 Kyllachy1902312.11%5327.89%0.89-41.10
18 Dutch Art1432316.08%4330.07%1.02-7.60
19 Sir Percy1422215.49%5337.32%1.14-36.28
20 Dandy Man (IRE)1682112.50%6035.71%0.91-28.31

Great Yarmouth Flat, since 2010. A fair, flat, galloping track produces an unusually level sire page — Oasis Dream, Kodiac, Dubawi and Dark Angel all sit within a whisker of A/E 1.00. The number that stands out is Dark Angel’s +£125.76 from 326 runners, the biggest sire profit here. Note what that does and does not mean: his A/E is 0.97, so his runners have won marginally less often than their prices implied, and the profit comes from a handful of winners returned at big prices rather than from beating the market overall. Frankel converts best of the quality lines on strike rate (26.72% from 116) at an A/E of 1.10, though Sir Percy’s 1.14 from 142 is the better market-adjusted figure in the table, and Night Of Thunder (A/E 1.06) is the pick of the newer sires. Outside the top 20, Land Force has returned +£58.50 from 25 runners at A/E 2.08, Gregorian +£38.80 from 32 at A/E 1.86 and Scat Daddy has won 8 of 19 — books of 19 to 32 runners are worth watching, not backing.
Yarmouth Flat · 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 Great Yarmouth Flat

🎓

Newmarket-trained maiden and novice runners deserve particular respect at Yarmouth

The Newmarket prep-school pattern is the headline angle at Yarmouth. Dubai Millennium, Ouija Board and Raven’s Pass all started here before going global. Charlie Appleby strikes at 30.25% from 119 Yarmouth runners; Gosden 27.58% from 359; Haggas 25.93% from 428. A top Newmarket yard sending a horse here, especially in a maiden, is a record that warrants respect. Read the A/E column before the strike rate, though, and read it one yard at a time: Appleby is below his market price at 0.91, Haggas roughly level at 1.02 and Gosden modestly above it at 1.08. None of the three is a betting system.

💎

Frankel’s runners strike at 26.72% here and have beaten their market price

Frankel progeny have struck at 26.72% from 116 Yarmouth runners for an A/E of 1.10, on a track whose galloping geometry suits his long-striding stock. It is not the best market-adjusted figure on the page — Sir Percy is 1.14 from 142, and three sires outside the top 20 are higher still. It is a historical record over a decade and a half of racing, not a proven continuing edge, and 116 runners is a moderate book. Treat a Frankel-sired runner here as worth a second look on the record, with the price and the race still doing the deciding — the table is an all-races aggregate, so it says nothing about which race types the edge sits in.

🌾

The sprint sire lines hold their own at Yarmouth

Oasis Dream (15.73%, A/E 1.00), Kodiac (16.13%, A/E 1.01), Invincible Spirit (15.56%) and Exceed And Excel (12.82%) all hold their own here, and the first two sit right on their market price rather than below it. The galloping geometry rewards speed of foot down a long straight, so the sprint lines are not at the disadvantage they can be on a switchback track.

🏇

Ryan Moore strikes at 26.80% from 306 Yarmouth rides — the highest of the visiting riders

Moore rides Yarmouth rarely and usually for the elite yards, so his bookings are a strong signal about the horse. They are not a price edge: his A/E here is 1.02 and his rides have returned a loss to level stakes. The same pattern holds for James Doyle (22.94%, A/E 0.94) and William Buick (23.03%, A/E 0.92) — respect the booking, and take the price on its own merits.

⚠

The straight 5f is the one trip where we will not call the draw

Our own sample leans high — 1.25 against 1.03 across 53 handicaps of eight or more runners since the relay — but the draw-quarter figures on the same races do not confirm it, and Dave Renham’s 2021–25 study for geegeez, on 42 Yarmouth five-furlong handicaps, concludes the opposite: prefer low. drawbias.com splits it by ground again, high on good or faster and low on soft. Where the draw genuinely bites at Yarmouth is the straight six furlongs and the 1m2f round, and both favour LOW. So handicap the five on pace, going and where the field goes rather than on any fixed low-or-high draw rule — what we can say is that no dependable direction has held up, not that the stall does not matter.

⛔

At the straight five furlongs, front-runners have historically struggled

Dave Renham’s study of UK 8+ runner handicaps from 2015 to 2022 found hold-up horses at Yarmouth’s five furlongs striking at three times the front-runner rate, at an A/E of 1.04 — an unusual result for a minimum trip, and the strongest run-style evidence on this page. One plausible explanation is the length of the home straight, which gives a held-up horse room to recover ground; the data show the pattern rather than the cause. ⚠ Keep it at five furlongs. We make no run-style call at 6f, 7f or the mile, and on the round course Timeform reads it the other way — those races use the same run-in, so the run-in cannot be what explains it.

🔻

Sir Mark Prescott sends few runners to Yarmouth and strikes at 23.27%

The Heath House yard has had only 159 runners here since 2010, but 37 winners from them at 23.27%, with an A/E of 1.07 — a small, selective book with a strong strike rate, so any Prescott runner warrants closer-than-usual analysis. Roger Varian is the next of the lower-volume yards at 20.82% from 293, though at an A/E of 0.93.

🏔

Work out WHY a horse ran well here before valuing the form elsewhere

Yarmouth is a galloping oval with a five-furlong run-in and a straight mile, so a win here usually means a horse galloped and stayed on down a long straight without needing to handle a switchback. That attribute is the thing to carry, and it points towards other galloping tracks rather than towards Epsom, Goodwood or Brighton. ⚠ We have not measured course-to-course transfer rates in either direction, so treat this as a suitability read rather than a rule.

🚀

Watch for hard-luck stories tight on the far rail – Weaver’s specific track risk

Per Weaver’s read: horses positioned tight on the far rail can get trapped behind tiring runners on the long run-in. Not a draw bias, and Weaver was describing what he expected of the relaid track rather than reporting a measured pattern. Use pace replays to identify horses that met trouble; whether they then improve next time is not something we have measured.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Applying a single draw rule across the Yarmouth trips. There is not one. The straight six furlongs and the 1m2f round both favour LOW draws, the straight seven and the straight mile are fair, and at the straight five our sample and the published studies disagree, so we make no call. Carrying the six-furlong rule onto the five, or the other way round, is the commonest mistake here.
  • Discounting Newmarket maidens because of low prize money. Newmarket yards use the track as a classroom, so the maiden and novice races here are routinely stronger than the prize money suggests. Yarmouth has produced a notable number of horses who went on to Group 1 company, and Timeform singles the course out for informative juvenile racing. Do not read a modest Yarmouth maiden as a weak race purely from the venue or the prize money. Pay attention to debut runners from top yards.
  • Backing Tom Queally or Luke Morris on volume alone. Both ride enormous numbers at Yarmouth but with weak strike rates (Queally 9.74%, Morris 10.98%). Volume creates name recognition, not value. The standouts against the market are Hollie Doyle (21.65%, A/E 1.21) and Pat Cosgrave (A/E 1.13), clear of the four other riders in the table who are also above 1.00; the 22%+ Newmarket-stable jockeys (Moore, J Doyle, Buick) are worth respecting on ability without being a price edge.
  • Assuming the galloping geometry suits small, nimble types. It does not. The combination of long straight chute, sharp bends, and 5f run-in suits big, long-striding gallopers. Match horse physique to the track demand: we have not measured how horses with sharp-track form fare here, so treat it as a suitability read rather than a strike-rate claim.
  • Treating a Yarmouth win as a portable rating. It is better read as evidence about the horse: a long, flat straight and sharpish bends reward galloping power and a horse that stays on, which is a different demand from a tight switchback like Epsom, Goodwood or Brighton. Use it as a suitability read — we have no measurement of how Yarmouth form actually travels.
  • Applying the five-furlong run-style finding to the whole card. At the straight 5f specifically, published handicap evidence is unusually favourable to hold-up horses. It does not follow at 6f, 7f or the mile, where we make no call, and on the round course Timeform reads it the other way. Use pace data trip by trip rather than as a Yarmouth rule.
Common Questions

Great Yarmouth Racecourse FAQs

Is there a draw bias at Great Yarmouth?
Yes at two of them, and it is not a course-wide rule. Measured in handicaps of eight or more runners since the 2015 relaying, with the draw cut into thirds inside each field size, and checked again over the full period since 2010: the straight six furlongs carries a strong low-draw bias, with the low third at an impact value of 1.41 against 0.66 for the high, widening to 1.78 against 0.40 in fields of eleven or more; racingalpha.co.uk replicates it independently on 2023–26 data. The 1m2f round leans the same way, 1.23 against 0.89, and there the lowest quarter of the draw returns an A/E of 1.24 against a course baseline of 0.84 — the strongest market-adjusted draw figure on the page. The straight seven furlongs and the straight mile are both genuinely fair, and the longest round-course trips, from 1m3f, measure unsettled on a small sample. Note there is no round mile at Yarmouth: every race from five furlongs to a mile is run on the straight course. The straight five furlongs is the one trip we will not call — our own sample leans high at 1.25 against 1.03, but the draw quarters on the same races do not confirm it and Dave Renham’s 2021–25 study for geegeez concludes the opposite, that a low draw is preferable there.
Which way does Great Yarmouth race, and what kind of track is it?
Left-handed and fundamentally galloping, a narrow oval of about 1m5f with one of the longest run-ins in Britain at five furlongs, plus a separate straight mile chute that joins it, on which every race from five furlongs to a mile is run — there is no round mile here. Despite the sharp bends it is essentially flat, bar a slight fall just before the run-in, and the free-draining sandy loam drains so well that the going is rarely truly testing. The geometry rewards big, long-striding gallopers rather than small, sharp-track types — a demand it shares in broad terms with Newmarket’s Rowley Mile, without the two being the same test.
Does the going or ground affect racing at Great Yarmouth?
The free-draining sandy loam means soft ground is a rarity, so you are usually handicapping on good or quick going — but that does not make the ground irrelevant. The ground staff here can be watering every twenty-four hours through the summer and put extra water on the bends, and they have said that watering right across the back straight changed the running line and made the surface more even. So check the official going, the rail position and where the field actually raced at the previous meeting rather than assuming a permanent fast strip. Pace is the other half of it: at the straight five furlongs specifically, published run-style work has hold-up horses doing unusually well. That finding does not extend to the other trips, where we make no call.
Which trainers and jockeys do best at Great Yarmouth?
The defining angle is the Newmarket connection: top headquarters yards use Yarmouth as a classroom, so their maiden and novice runners are often better prepared than the grade of race suggests. Charlie Appleby (30.25%), John Gosden (27.58%) and William Haggas (25.93%) have the biggest strike rates, and their A/E figures differ: Appleby 0.91, Haggas 1.02, Gosden 1.08. Read the strike rate as a pointer to the horse and the A/E as the price question. Eight of the twenty trainers in the table sit above an A/E of 1.00; the standouts are Philip McBride (1.44, +£156.47), Michael Bell (1.10) and Phil McEntee (1.09), with David Simcock (1.05) the pick on raw profit at +£49.57 and Sir Mark Prescott a small, selective book at 23.27%. Six of the twenty riders sit above an A/E of 1.00, and Hollie Doyle (1.21) and Pat Cosgrave (1.13) are clear of the rest. The weakest against the market are Ed Dunlop (A/E 0.71), Stuart Williams (0.74) and Julia Feilden (0.76, now Julia Birkett of Birkett Racing) among trainers, and Neil Callan (0.67), David Egan (0.73) and Oisin Murphy (0.79) among riders — Luke Morris has the biggest level-stakes loss but sits above those three on A/E at 0.80.
What is the biggest mistake punters make at Great Yarmouth?
Applying one draw rule to the whole track, and misreading the track type. The relaying did change the straight, but not in the place the old advice pointed: splitting our sample either side of it, the trip that lost its high-draw lean is the SEVEN furlongs, while the mile was undirectional before the work as well. And it did not level the draw everywhere — the straight six furlongs and the 1m2f round both favour low draws, and at the straight five the evidence is genuinely contested. The other errors are discounting Yarmouth maidens because of modest prize money, when the course has a notable record of producing horses who went on to Group 1 company, and assuming the galloping geometry suits small, nimble switchback types. It does not: this is a test of galloping power down a long straight, which is the attribute to carry when you value the form elsewhere.

Explore

Nearby Tracks

Newmarket

Wide, galloping straights — the Rowley Mile and July.

Nottingham

Flat, fair, galloping left-hander at Colwick Park.

Doncaster

Galloping and fair — straight course and round track.

Brighton

Switchback left-hand horseshoe — low draw in sprints.

Windsor

Figure-of-eight, flat and fair, riverside — plus jumps since 2024.

Ascot

Stiff, galloping right-hander — round and straight.

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