Racecourse Guide

Naas
Flat

Tipper Road, Naas, County Kildare · 18 miles southwest of Dublin

⬤ Flat Turf
Turf
Left-Handed
Galloping
Ascot Trials Day

Round Course

~1½m left-handed oval

Straight Course

5f–6f via 2f chute

Direction

Left-handed

Surface

Turf

Shape

Galloping stiff finish

Key Race

Blue Wind Stks Gr.3

Also at Naas

Naas also stages National Hunt racing. Read the National Hunt racecourse guide →

Track Breakdown

What is Naas racecourse like?

Track Character

Naas is Irish Flat racing’s fast-improver. A track founded by eight local men in 1922 and first raced in June 1924 now stages four black-type races, took three consecutive Racecourse of the Year awards at the Irish owners’ association (2022–24), and opened its landmark Circle building in 2019 as the face of a €3.2m redevelopment. The Flat season runs from late March to an October festival weekend within a twenty-fixture year.

The course is a left-handed, galloping oval of about a mile and a half, finishing up a genuinely stiff four-furlong straight. A two-furlong chute lets five- and six-furlong races run on an effectively straight course — one that rides fairer than it used to, after levelling works flattened the old ridges in the first three furlongs of the straight. It is an honest, staying test: long-striding gallopers proven at the trip are the type.

The black-type calendar clusters in early summer. The Group 3 Blue Wind Stakes in May — named for the 1981 dual Oaks heroine, at Naas since 2005 — is an Oaks trial under Al Shira’aa sponsorship; mid-May’s Royal Ascot Trials Day doubles the Group 3 Lacken Stakes with the Group 3 fillies’ sprint, and the form travels: Charles Darwin won at Naas in 2025 en route to the Norfolk Stakes. The Listed Naas Oaks Trial follows in late June — Even So completed the trial–Irish Oaks double in 2020.

The other thing to know: Ballydoyle uses Naas. Auguste Rodin won his maiden here in July 2022 before his Epsom and Irish Derby double; Little Big Bear won a five-furlong maiden here before being crowned Europe’s champion juvenile of 2022. The datasets genuinely disagree on Aidan O’Brien’s exact course tally — one logs 124 wins at 20.3%, another 74 at 28% — but nobody disputes the pattern. Ger Lyons, 113 wins at 16.59% on the page’s own since-2010 figures, is the leading local yard, though at A/E 0.96 he is priced about right rather than a value name; Colin Keane leads the riders at A/E 0.95.

Mick Kinane’s view deals with the track’s old nickname head-on:

“It’s known as the ‘Punter’s Graveyard’, but I don’t see why it plays out like that, as it is a fair track by all accounts. On the round track, the ground before the chute for the mile start back up to the mile-and-a-quarter start tends to get softer than the rest of it. I’d always prefer a low draw in the mile-and-a-quarter races. The seven furlong and mile tracks are very fair. The draw isn’t a big issue, as there is plenty of time to get across and find a position before the turn into the straight. The sprint track has always been good and it is even better now since they levelled out the first three furlongs or so to take the ridges out of it. The draw isn’t really a factor on it barring the ground gets soft, then high draws are favoured as they tend to come towards the stand rail.”
— Mick Kinane, former champion Irish Flat jockey — At The Races

The “Punter’s Graveyard” tag, in other words, is about competitiveness, not unfairness — big, open Irish handicaps are simply hard puzzles. Kinane’s two practical markers survive every check: soft ground redraws the sprint course (high numbers drift to the stand rail), and low is the preference when the mile-and-a-quarter races load. The full draw picture, disagreements included, is below.

Course Facts

Circuit ~1½ miles, left-handed, galloping — a stiff four-furlong straight rising to the line
Sprints 5f–6f run straight via the two-furlong chute; old ridges in the straight levelled out
Draw Low strongly favoured at 5f (small samples), a milder low lean at 6f, fair at 7f–1m, low again at 1m2f+ — and the sprint read flips high on soft
Ground quirk The approach before the chute (around the mile start) rides softer than the rest
Season Late March to the October festival weekend, within ~20 fixtures a year

Black-Type Calendar

May Blue Wind Stakes, Gr.3, 1m2f — Oaks trial, at Naas since 2005
Mid-May Royal Ascot Trials Day: Lacken Stakes Gr.3 (6f, 3yos) + the Gr.3 fillies’ sprint (6f, 2yos)
Late June Naas Oaks Trial, Listed, 1m2f — Even So did the double in 2020
Pedigree Sioux Nation and Caravaggio among past Lacken winners; Charles Darwin went Naas → Norfolk Stakes in 2025

Ground & Access

Drainage Uneven — the final stretch drains best; the far side and the pre-chute zone ride softer
Yielding Ireland’s the recognised Irish equivalent of a British “good to soft” — the label travels, the ground underneath it varies
Where Tipper Road, Naas, Co. Kildare — 18 miles southwest of Dublin, M7 exit 9, ~35–40 minutes
Note Punchestown is a separate course four miles away — an easy mix-up

Pace Analysis

Do front-runners win at Naas?

Naas asks a stamina question and then, awkwardly, does not reward the answer you would expect. The home straight is a stiff four furlongs uphill — a proper test — and the intuitive read is that a track finishing like that must give closers something to aim at.

It does not, and it is worth being honest that this is a tension rather than a tidy story. The sprint trips run wire-to-wire on the straight course with no bend at all, and that is where prominent racing is at its most dominant. Over seven furlongs and a mile the field gets a long run before the only turn, and how fair that leaves things is genuinely disputed. What holds throughout is that horses ridden to come from a long way back rarely get there, climb or no climb.

Run Style Bias — Qualitative Only

▲ Prominent

The most consistent profile

▲ Front-runners

Strongest on the straight course

─ Mid-division

No dedicated read

▼ Held up

Rarely get there despite the hill

Treat these bars as directional — a reading of how the track rides rather than a statistical measurement. How fair 7f and a mile really are is disputed between published reads; the sprint picture is the clearer one.

Draw Analysis

Does the draw matter at Naas?

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. Higher bar = stronger draw bias.

Low ★★

No Clear Bias

Low ★

Low Lean

7f – 1m

Fair

Broadly Fair

1m2f – 1m4f

Low ★

Low Draw ★★

Strong bias — material handicapping factor

Moderate lean — worth noting

Broadly fair — not a primary factor

Naas has real, quantified draw structure — with sample-size honesty required at the extremes. At five furlongs, the two quantified reads agree emphatically: low draws have “massively outperformed” (a low-draw PRB of 0.56), and the handicap-only splits found no winners from the top half — while itself warning Naas rarely runs 5f races, “so very little to go on.” At six furlongs both agree the low lean persists, less pronounced. At 7f–1m the edge all but disappears. At 1m2f–1m4f, low numbers hold a slight edge because the bend arrives soon after the start — Kinane’s preference too. One dissenting site claims “medium to high stalls have fared best” in the chute races, with no numbers or dates attached; two evidenced reads against one unevidenced claim is a weighting, not a resolution. And the going twist belongs to the rider: on soft ground the sprint field drifts to the stand rail and high draws come into their own.

No Clear Bias

⚠ Not supported once the draw is cut into thirds within each field size. Across 53 handicaps of eight or more runners the low third runs at 1.24 and the HIGH third at 1.18 — level with each other — while the middle collapses to 0.57. Whatever is happening here is not a low-draw bias; it is a poor middle, on a sample far too small to price. Naas stages few 5f handicaps of this size, and the published PRB reading rests on the same thin base.

Low Lean

Both quantified reads find the low edge persists at six furlongs, milder than at the minimum. On soft ground, flip the read: the field tacks to the stand rail and high draws are favoured (Kinane).

7f – 1m

Broadly Fair

The low edge “all but disappears” — plenty of time to find a position before the turn. One read wonders about a mild anti-middle effect; nothing firm enough to price.

1m2f – 1m4f

Low Draw ★★

Confirmed, and the firmest draw call on the page: across 65 handicaps of eight or more runners from 1m1f to 1m2f the low third of the draw runs at an impact value of 1.31 against 0.98 for the high, with the middle again the weakest at 0.72. A bend soon after the start gives inside stalls a persistent edge and the rider preference matches the data. Combine low with a prominent style for the full effect.

The PRB figures and the handicap-only draw splits agree independently, both carrying their own small-sample caveats, with Mick Kinane’s rider view via At The Races supplying the soft-ground stand-rail reversal. The lone “medium-to-high” dissent is noted above. A first-party stalls pull does sit behind this section: HRB data for Naas handicaps of eight or more runners since 2010, with the draw cut into thirds within each field size so every stall is judged against the number of chances it actually gets, and, where the sample allows, cross-checked against the value returned by each quarter of the draw.

Statistics · Since 2010

Which trainers and jockeys win most at Naas?

Trainer	Runs	Wins	Win%	Places	Place%	A/E	P/L
1 O’Brien, A P	851	194	22.80%	383	45.01%	0.95	-78.30
2 Lyons, G M	681	113	16.59%	259	38.03%	0.96	-67.07
3 Bolger, J S	629	72	11.45%	165	26.23%	0.95	-88.80
4 Harrington, Mrs John	606	65	10.73%	194	32.01%	0.87	-115.12
5 Weld, D K	495	54	10.91%	160	32.32%	0.69	-214.87
6 O’Brien, Joseph Patrick	499	52	10.42%	156	31.26%	0.76	-110.63
7 Murtagh, J P	427	38	8.90%	123	28.81%	0.76	-116.65
8 Lynam, Edward	265	32	12.08%	91	34.34%	0.99	-24.23
9 O’Callaghan, M D	257	32	12.45%	78	30.35%	0.92	-52.22
10 McCreery, W	354	22	6.21%	82	23.16%	0.64	-166.76
11 Meade, Noel	173	22	12.72%	44	25.43%	1.39	+21.33
12 Stack, J A	171	21	12.28%	55	32.16%	1.05	+58.72
13 Condon, K J	199	19	9.55%	58	29.15%	0.89	-57.42
14 Oliver, Andrew	169	19	11.24%	46	27.22%	1.13	+73.07
15 McGuinness, Adrian	258	18	6.98%	61	23.64%	0.87	-12.75
16 Halford, M	329	17	5.17%	86	26.14%	0.46	-222.01
17 Slattery, Andrew	211	15	7.11%	51	24.17%	0.82	-57.00
18 Murphy, Joseph G	144	13	9.03%	34	23.61%	1.01	+27.66
19 Obrien, Donnacha	101	12	11.88%	38	37.62%	0.75	-54.44

Naas Flat, since 2010. Aidan O’Brien is unusually well handled here — 194 winners from 851 at 22.80%, A/E 0.95 and only £78.30 down, one of his better value figures anywhere. Ger Lyons (16.59% from 681, A/E 0.96) and Jim Bolger (A/E 0.95) are close to fair too, which makes Naas a fairer page than most in this set. Dermot Weld is the clear one to oppose at A/E 0.69 across 495 runners for £214.87, with Joseph Patrick O’Brien (A/E 0.76) and Johnny Murtagh (A/E 0.76) also below par. Edward Lynam is level at A/E 0.99.
Naas Flat · Current trainers, since 2010

Jockey	Runs	Wins	Win%	Places	Place%	A/E	P/L
1 Keane, C T	752	129	17.15%	297	39.49%	0.95	-23.32
2 Hayes, C D	758	72	9.50%	213	28.10%	0.90	-78.81
3 Foley, Shane	734	72	9.81%	232	31.61%	0.78	-230.13
4 Lordan, W M	585	62	10.60%	162	27.69%	0.84	-164.52
5 Heffernan, J A	502	55	10.96%	143	28.49%	0.87	-133.28
6 Moore, Ryan	133	49	36.84%	80	60.15%	1.00	-3.88
7 Lee, W J	605	48	7.93%	166	27.44%	0.65	-248.32
8 Carroll, G F	502	42	8.37%	100	19.92%	0.97	-80.48
9 McDonogh, D P	488	37	7.58%	133	27.25%	0.67	-152.41
10 McMonagle, Dylan B	223	31	13.90%	79	35.43%	0.94	+14.28
11 Roche, L F	409	29	7.09%	96	23.47%	0.89	-138.43
12 Coen, Ben M	348	28	8.05%	80	22.99%	0.78	-107.72
13 Whelan, R P	520	25	4.81%	117	22.50%	0.59	-205.15
14 Ryan, Gavin	208	24	11.54%	54	25.96%	1.03	-6.85
15 Slattery, A J	230	18	7.83%	63	27.39%	0.92	+4.00
16 McCullagh, N G	316	16	5.06%	53	16.77%	0.73	-182.36
17 McAteer, L T	125	15	12.00%	32	25.60%	1.16	+8.90
18 Orr, Oisin	176	13	7.39%	44	25.00%	0.70	-82.29
19 Sheridan, J M	161	11	6.83%	35	21.74%	0.80	-73.00
20 O’Connor, Donagh	119	11	9.24%	20	16.81%	1.33	-15.00

Naas Flat, since 2010. Colin Keane is the standout resident — 129 winners from 752 at 17.15%, A/E 0.95 and only £23.32 down, close to break-even on a big book. Ryan Moore wins better than a third of his 133 rides here for a level A/E 1.00. Gary Carroll is fair at A/E 0.97. The ones to oppose are Billy Lee, whose A/E 0.65 across 605 rides is the weakest figure on the page for £248.32 of losses, and Shane Foley at A/E 0.78. On a fair, galloping track the value here is in avoiding the wrong booking rather than backing the right one.
Naas Flat · Current riders, since 2010

Sire Statistics · Since 2010

Which sires do best at Naas?

A/E above 1.0 indicates market underestimation.

Sire	Runs	Wins	Win%	Places	Place%	A/E	P/L
1 Galileo (IRE)	323	52	16.10%	117	36.22%	0.84	-78.21
2 No Nay Never (USA)	221	41	18.55%	84	38.01%	1.09	+28.56
3 Invincible Spirit (IRE)	252	27	10.71%	78	30.95%	0.80	-117.67
4 War Front (USA)	105	27	25.71%	47	44.76%	1.11	+7.30
5 Holy Roman Emperor (IRE)	215	25	11.63%	51	23.72%	1.05	-2.18
6 Kodiac	317	24	7.57%	89	28.08%	0.72	-150.88
7 Starspangledbanner (AUS)	208	23	11.06%	69	33.17%	0.93	+26.10
8 Dark Angel (IRE)	254	21	8.27%	67	26.38%	0.63	-161.67
9 Acclamation	240	21	8.75%	66	27.50%	0.80	-88.77
10 Footstepsinthesand	240	21	8.75%	57	23.75%	1.00	-37.54
11 Wootton Bassett	74	19	25.68%	31	41.89%	1.14	+54.76
12 Dandy Man (IRE)	307	16	5.21%	69	22.48%	0.63	-161.30
13 Teofilo (IRE)	146	16	10.96%	34	23.29%	0.88	-61.16
14 Lope De Vega (IRE)	134	16	11.94%	38	28.36%	0.77	-39.68
15 Dawn Approach (IRE)	126	16	12.70%	37	29.37%	1.40	+84.25
16 Pivotal	69	15	21.74%	29	42.03%	1.40	+25.37
17 Camelot	106	14	13.21%	31	29.25%	1.00	-40.41
18 Shamardal (USA)	104	14	13.46%	33	31.73%	0.93	-22.98
19 Oasis Dream	117	13	11.11%	30	25.64%	0.79	-62.26
20 Choisir (AUS)	92	13	14.13%	30	32.61%	1.32	+56.03

Naas Flat, since 2010. Galileo tops the winners (52 from 323) at A/E 0.84 and, as across most of this set, the fashionable name is not the answer. Three sires beat their price: No Nay Never (18.55% from 221, A/E 1.09, +£28.56), War Front (25.71% from 105, A/E 1.11) and Holy Roman Emperor (A/E 1.05). Starspangledbanner returns +£26.10 despite a fair A/E 0.93, so his winners come at prices. Oppose Kodiac (317 runners, A/E 0.72, £150.88 down), Invincible Spirit (A/E 0.80) and Acclamation (A/E 0.80).
Naas 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 Naas Flat Turf

⚖

The sprint draw is a two-state system

On sound ground the chute course is close to fair with a low lean; when it turns soft the field migrates to the stand rail and high draws take over — a rider-documented reversal most draw tables never show. Check the going before you check the stalls, and price the flip in soft-ground sprints.

📍

Low plus prominent at a mile and a quarter

The bend arrives quickly from the 1m2f start, the data gives inside stalls a slight persistent edge, and Kinane always preferred low there. A low draw on a horse that will be ridden handy is the cleanest structural shape Naas offers.

⛰

Trust stayers up the hill

The four-furlong rising straight is the examination: horses proven at the trip keep finding, flashy travellers stepping up in distance get found out. The “Punter’s Graveyard” loses its teeth once you insist on proven stamina.

🏆

Ascot Trials Day form is the point of it

Naas’s mid-May card exists to trial Royal Ascot, and the form does travel — Charles Darwin won here in 2025 before the Norfolk Stakes, following a Lacken lineage that includes Sioux Nation and Caravaggio. Winners off that card re-oppose at Ascot with form the British market still under-reads.

📈

Lyons is the value; O’Brien is the tax

On the page’s own since-2010 figures the two are closer than their reputations suggest: Ger Lyons has 113 Naas winners from 681 runners at 16.59% for an A/E of 0.96, and Aidan O’Brien 194 from 851 at 22.80% for A/E 0.95. Neither is profitable to follow blind — Lyons is £67.07 down and O’Brien £78.30 — but both are close enough to fair value that the price, not the name, is the whole question here.

🌧

Respect the mile-start ground quirk

The stretch before the chute — around the mile to 1m2f starts — rides softer than the rest of the course. In marginal going, mile races begin on the track’s worst ground: another quiet upgrade for proven soft-ground horses at those trips.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Opposing Ballydoyle too lightly. Aidan O’Brien’s Naas record is dominant — the exact tally is disputed (one count 74, another 124) but the pattern is not — so a short-priced O’Brien runner here is rarely the easy lay it looks.
Applying one sprint-draw rule in all conditions. The low-draw lean holds on sound ground and reverses toward the stand rail on soft — the going decides which table you are in.
Confusing Naas with Punchestown, four miles away and routinely geo-tagged “Naas.” Different tracks, different codes of emphasis, different guides.
Trusting the going label on its own. Irish “yielding” is the recognised equivalent of British “good to soft”, so the word travels — but at Naas the far side and the mile-start zone ride slower than the posted word.

Common Questions

Naas (Flat) Racecourse FAQs

Is there a draw bias at Naas?

Trip and going dependent. At 5f low draws have dominated the small samples (PRB 0.56, no top-half winners in one dataset); at 6f the low lean persists more mildly; at 7f–1m the track is broadly fair; and from 1m2f the quick first bend gives low stalls a slight edge again. The crucial condition: on soft ground the sprint field drifts to the stand rail and high draws are favoured — Mick Kinane’s rider-documented reversal. One dissenting claim has medium-high suiting the chute; both evidenced reads say low.

What kind of track is Naas on the Flat?

A left-handed, galloping oval of roughly a mile and a half with a stiff, rising four-furlong home straight — plus a two-furlong chute that lets 5f and 6f races run effectively straight, on ground made fairer by levelling works. It is an honest stamina test suiting long-striding gallopers proven at the trip. The “Punter’s Graveyard” nickname reflects the competitiveness of its big handicaps, not any unfairness in the track — Kinane called it fair by all accounts.

What are the big Flat races at Naas?

Four black-type contests, clustered in early summer: the Group 3 Blue Wind Stakes over 1m2f in May (an Oaks trial, at Naas since 2005), the Group 3 Lacken Stakes and the Group 3 fillies’ sprint together on Royal Ascot Trials Day in mid-May, and the Listed Naas Oaks Trial in late June — Even So won it and the Irish Oaks itself in 2020. The Trials Day form genuinely travels: Charles Darwin won at Naas in 2025 before taking the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Do the big yards use Naas?

Constantly — it is one of Ballydoyle’s favourite schooling grounds in public. Auguste Rodin won his maiden here in July 2022 before his 2023 Epsom and Irish Derby double, and Little Big Bear took a five-furlong Naas maiden before being crowned Europe’s champion two-year-old of 2022. The datasets disagree on Aidan O’Brien’s exact course tally (74 vs 124 wins), but not on the pattern. Ger Lyons — 113 wins at 16.59%, A/E 0.96 — is the local stable, and he is priced about right rather than underrated.

Where is Naas racecourse?

On Tipper Road on the edge of Naas town, County Kildare — about 18 miles southwest of Dublin, roughly 35–40 minutes via the N7/M7 (exit 9, five minutes from the motorway). Don’t confuse it with Punchestown, the festival venue four miles away that shares the town’s postal address in most listings. The Flat season runs from late March to an October festival weekend.

Explore

Nearby Tracks

The Curragh

Eight miles away — HQ of the Irish Flat.

Leopardstown

Dublin’s Champions Festival stage.

Galway

The summer festival’s unique switchback.

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