Redcar
Flat
Redcar, North Yorkshire · the seaside racecourse on the North Sea coast
Turf
Left-Handed
Flat Galloping
Two-Year-Old Trophy Listed
What is Redcar racecourse like?
Track Character
Redcar sits on the North Sea coast in North Yorkshire, just to the north-east of Middlesbrough and within sight of the beach. It is one of the most underrated flat tracks in Britain – a narrow, left-handed oval of approximately 1 mile and 6 furlongs with a separate straight mile course used for races between 5 furlongs and a mile. The track is perfectly flat with two sharp bends, but is otherwise a fundamentally galloping course with a five-furlong home straight. The course drains well, so the going is good or quicker through most of the summer. Redcar’s season runs from April to October – 18 fixtures in 2026.
The track is fundamentally galloping in character but it does not ride as straightforwardly as the geography suggests. Ridges have developed in the running surface over years of use, the bottom turn is notoriously tricky to navigate, and the 5-furlong home straight is deceptively long – races repeatedly change shape after the home turn. Former jockey Jason Weaver, in the At The Races View From the Saddle Redcar guide, identifies the riding challenge precisely:
— Jason Weaver, former jockey (At The Races View From the Saddle)
Read Weaver for what he is describing: the bottom turn and the way races change after the home turn are round-course racecraft, and the straight-course races from 5f to 1m never meet a bend at all. Over the round trips his “play your cards late” is the practical key, because a five-furlong home straight is long enough to catch a horse that has committed too early – patient horses with finishing speed are repeatedly the winning profile there. On the straight course the opposite applies at the minimum trip, where early speed is worth more than at almost any other British track. The track’s other defining feature is the Two-Year-Old Trophy roll of honour – Pipalong (1998), Somnus (2002, who became European Champion Sprinter two years later), Body And Soul (2012) and Limato (2014, who went on to win the July Cup) – and it is the race conditions that produce it: the weights come from the median auction price of the sire’s yearlings rather than from official ratings, which brings Group-class juveniles here on terms they would not get elsewhere. Draw bias is primarily a question of trip: five furlongs is the one distance where the independent studies agree, and they agree on low.
Course Facts
- Configuration Narrow left-handed oval approximately 1 mile 6 furlongs; separate straight mile course for 5f-1m races
- Topography Perfectly flat throughout; banked sharp bends counter the geometry
- Run-in 5 furlongs from the home turn to the line – one of the longer home straights in Britain
- Drainage Drains well and has had heavy investment; default going is good or faster
- First raced Coatham Sands beach racing from the 18th century; current racecourse opened 1872
The Two-Year-Old Trophy
- Format Listed, Class 1, 6f (5f217y), 2yo – not a handicap: weights come from the median auction price of the sire’s yearlings, plus sex allowance and black-type penalties
- Field size Maximum 23, though recent runnings have come in below that – 15 in 2025, 19 in 2024, 10 in 2023 and 16 in 2022
- Pipalong (1998) Won the Trophy then went on to win the Great St Wilfrid; Group 1-placed sprinter
- Somnus (2002) Trophy winner who became European Champion Sprinter in 2004
- Limato (2014) Trophy winner who went on to win the 2016 July Cup and Prix de la Foret
Run Style & Draw
- 5f straight Low draws favoured at five furlongs – the one trip the independent reads agree on
- 6f straight Six furlongs gets no call – the only trip-specific read of it points slightly high
- 7f-1m straight No meaningful draw bias at either trip; pace matters more than position
- Round course Broadly fair at every trip – the long home straight gives the field time to organise
- Pace bias Front-running edge is strongest at 5f and weakest over the straight mile; no published sample splits Redcar’s pace by going
Calendar & History
- Founded Current racecourse built 1872; previous racing on Coatham Sands from the 18th century
- Fixtures 18 fixtures in 2026, April to October, with September and October the headline late-season cards
- Two-Year-Old Trophy Listed 6f late September/early October – the seasonal highlight
- Guisborough Stakes Listed 7f for 3yo+, run on the same card as the Trophy, alongside the final of the season-long Straight Mile Series
- Zetland Gold Cup Late-May handicap over 1m2f – Sir Michael Stoute trained Kingdom of Fife to win in 2009
Do front-runners win at Redcar?
Redcar is perfectly flat and thoroughly galloping, and everything up to a mile is run on its own straight course without a bend to negotiate. Five furlongs is where early speed counts for most: the published pace indicator ranks Redcar fourth of thirty-one courses for front-runners at the trip. Take that as an observed pattern rather than a consequence of the geometry — the same source notes that it is generally harder to make all on a straight course, and says plainly that the five-furlong finding is hard to explain.
The edge shrinks as the trip stretches, but not in a straight line. The same measure ranks Redcar 27th of thirty for front-runners over the straight mile – its weakest trip for them – while the round-course races at 1m2f read fractionally better again, and only over 1m6f does the balance tip to the hold-up horse. Read Redcar by distance rather than by reputation: the minimum trip and the straight mile are close to opposite tests.
Run Style Bias — Qualitative Only
Strongest at 5f, weakest over 1m
Shares the sprint advantage
Balanced from 7f to 1m
Comes good at 1m6f
Treat these bars as directional. The pace indicator behind the rankings quoted above does not state its sample period, so it is used here for direction and for comparison between trips, not as a dated measurement. Published reads disagree on exactly where the tipping point sits, but agree on the direction.
Does the draw matter at Redcar?
Strong bias — material handicapping factor
Moderate lean — worth noting
Broadly fair — not a primary factor
Source: Four studies, each stating its own scope. geegeez, 49 five-furlong handicaps of seven or more runners from 2021 to 2025, stalls cut into thirds inside each race and adjusted for non-runners. drawbias, 3yo+ handicaps from 2024-25, plotting winning stalls against field size. racingalpha, 308 races from 1 June 2023 to 9 June 2026, thirds cut inside each race, impact value against the course baseline and A/E against de-overrounded Betfair SP. And an older straight-course study of 528 races at a mile and below from 2011 to 2021, with a separate 170-race round-course sample. Where they disagree, the card says so.
Read the draw here by trip, not by reputation. Five furlongs is the one place the evidence converges, and it converges on low. Six furlongs is run on the same straight course and the only trip-specific read of it points the other way, so it carries no call. Seven furlongs, the straight mile and both round-course trips read broadly fair on the current trip-specific evidence — an older six-year study of 14+ runner straight-course fields did have low draws generally on top across all four straight trips, so read this as the state of the evidence now rather than a claim that Redcar has always been fair. A blanket “low in the sprints, high on the round course” rule does not survive the sources: pair the low draw with early speed at the minimum trip, and treat everything else here as a pace and stamina question.
How to read these figures: every card names the study behind it, its period and its race filter. Two of the three current reads cut the stalls into thirds inside each race, so field size cannot skew the groups: the 2021-25 five-furlong study, which also adjusts for non-runners, and the 2023-26 sample. drawbias works differently — it plots the winning stall against the size of the field, with no denominator behind it, which is why it can point a direction here but never a figure. The 2021-25 and 2024-25 studies are handicaps only; the 2023-26 sample states no race-type filter. Where a study publishes its numbers only as a chart, the direction is quoted and the figures are not. Straight-course biases also move with rail position, watering and where the pace concentrates — watch the first race or two before treating any of this as fixed for the day.
Which trainers and jockeys win most at Redcar?
Source: FormDial data, a first-party Redcar Flat pull covering 1 January 2010 to 26 July 2026. All columns available: Runs, Wins, Win%, A/E, P/L(SP). Rows 11-20 hidden by default.
| Trainer | Runs | Wins | Win% | Places | Place% | A/E | P/L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Easterby, T D | 1564 | 128 | 8.18% | 405 | 25.90% | 0.80 | -515.48 |
| 2 O’Meara, D | 756 | 112 | 14.81% | 271 | 35.85% | 1.00 | -3.97 |
| 3 Fahey, R A | 802 | 106 | 13.22% | 279 | 34.79% | 0.91 | -163.00 |
| 4 Dods, M | 670 | 72 | 10.75% | 200 | 29.85% | 0.90 | -116.10 |
| 5 Ryan, K A | 424 | 50 | 11.79% | 135 | 31.84% | 0.84 | -127.75 |
| 6 Haggas, W J | 142 | 44 | 30.99% | 77 | 54.23% | 1.00 | -19.45 |
| 7 Barron, T D | 334 | 42 | 12.57% | 110 | 32.93% | 0.99 | -11.03 |
| 8 Tinkler, N | 484 | 41 | 8.47% | 123 | 25.41% | 1.00 | +57.41 |
| 9 Quinn, J J | 346 | 37 | 10.69% | 97 | 28.03% | 0.81 | -154.09 |
| 10 Burke, K R | 271 | 34 | 12.55% | 100 | 36.90% | 0.82 | -84.34 |
| 11 Smart, B | 344 | 33 | 9.59% | 96 | 27.91% | 0.86 | -46.09 |
| 12 Midgley, P T | 365 | 32 | 8.77% | 108 | 29.59% | 0.82 | -129.20 |
| 13 Easterby, M W | 438 | 31 | 7.08% | 102 | 23.29% | 0.81 | -247.04 |
| 14 Carr, Mrs R A | 433 | 31 | 7.16% | 107 | 24.71% | 0.72 | -175.62 |
| 15 Carroll, D | 269 | 27 | 10.04% | 67 | 24.91% | 1.02 | -24.75 |
| 16 Waggott, Miss Tracy | 342 | 23 | 6.73% | 79 | 23.10% | 0.81 | -92.00 |
| 17 Bethell, Ed | 94 | 23 | 24.47% | 48 | 51.06% | 1.19 | +21.66 |
| 18 Varian, Roger | 80 | 21 | 26.25% | 45 | 56.25% | 0.81 | -11.91 |
| 19 Ellison, B | 276 | 20 | 7.25% | 67 | 24.28% | 0.61 | -191.03 |
Redcar Flat · Current trainers, since 2010
| Jockey | Runs | Wins | Win% | Places | Place% | A/E | P/L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Allan, David | 889 | 95 | 10.69% | 288 | 32.40% | 0.87 | +1.34 |
| 2 Tudhope, Daniel | 416 | 87 | 20.91% | 181 | 43.51% | 1.11 | +76.54 |
| 3 Hart, Jason | 508 | 69 | 13.58% | 156 | 30.71% | 1.03 | -74.96 |
| 4 Mulrennan, Paul | 543 | 61 | 11.23% | 181 | 33.33% | 0.85 | -171.39 |
| 5 McDonald, P J | 526 | 56 | 10.65% | 174 | 33.08% | 0.86 | -107.29 |
| 6 Eaves, Tom | 665 | 47 | 7.07% | 158 | 23.76% | 0.74 | -298.52 |
| 7 Beasley, Connor | 497 | 47 | 9.46% | 165 | 33.20% | 0.78 | -154.13 |
| 8 Curtis, B A | 297 | 39 | 13.13% | 105 | 35.35% | 0.88 | -113.18 |
| 9 Stott, Kevin | 263 | 38 | 14.45% | 95 | 36.12% | 0.92 | -35.92 |
| 10 Sullivan, James P | 584 | 36 | 6.16% | 113 | 19.35% | 0.85 | -197.37 |
| 11 Nolan, D | 337 | 34 | 10.09% | 100 | 29.67% | 0.84 | -36.29 |
| 12 Sousa, Silvestre De | 211 | 34 | 16.11% | 92 | 43.60% | 0.89 | -44.90 |
| 13 Mullen, Andrew | 435 | 30 | 6.90% | 81 | 18.62% | 0.97 | -97.52 |
| 14 Rodriguez, Callum | 214 | 30 | 14.02% | 82 | 38.32% | 0.90 | -75.42 |
| 15 Fentiman, Duran | 569 | 28 | 4.92% | 105 | 18.45% | 0.77 | -168.92 |
| 16 James, S H | 241 | 26 | 10.79% | 75 | 31.12% | 0.96 | -4.09 |
| 17 McHugh, B | 440 | 23 | 5.23% | 91 | 20.68% | 0.56 | -282.54 |
| 18 Scott, Rowan | 241 | 23 | 9.54% | 58 | 24.07% | 1.10 | -32.42 |
| 19 Gray, S A | 270 | 21 | 7.78% | 54 | 20.00% | 0.80 | -67.21 |
Redcar Flat · Current riders, since 2010
Which sires do best at Redcar?
Source: FormDial data, a first-party Redcar Flat pull covering 1 January 2010 to 26 July 2026.
| Sire | Runs | Wins | Win% | Places | Place% | A/E | P/L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Kodiac | 357 | 46 | 12.89% | 109 | 30.53% | 0.93 | -119.19 |
| 2 Acclamation | 314 | 40 | 12.74% | 87 | 27.71% | 1.06 | +27.94 |
| 3 Dark Angel (IRE) | 263 | 36 | 13.69% | 93 | 35.36% | 0.97 | -78.25 |
| 4 Bahamian Bounty | 203 | 27 | 13.30% | 69 | 33.99% | 1.21 | +1.91 |
| 5 Dandy Man (IRE) | 305 | 26 | 8.52% | 79 | 25.90% | 0.78 | -72.71 |
| 6 Invincible Spirit (IRE) | 233 | 25 | 10.73% | 73 | 31.33% | 0.85 | -28.42 |
| 7 Dubawi (IRE) | 106 | 25 | 23.58% | 47 | 44.34% | 1.08 | +4.49 |
| 8 Iffraaj | 248 | 24 | 9.68% | 66 | 26.61% | 0.83 | +14.56 |
| 9 Showcasing | 174 | 24 | 13.79% | 54 | 31.03% | 1.23 | +14.08 |
| 10 Mayson | 184 | 21 | 11.41% | 53 | 28.80% | 0.94 | -76.66 |
| 11 Lope De Vega (IRE) | 100 | 21 | 21.00% | 49 | 49.00% | 1.19 | +55.37 |
| 12 Bated Breath | 138 | 20 | 14.49% | 60 | 43.48% | 1.07 | -21.54 |
| 13 Monsieur Bond (IRE) | 266 | 19 | 7.14% | 58 | 21.80% | 0.83 | -122.92 |
| 14 Dutch Art | 194 | 19 | 9.79% | 60 | 30.93% | 0.85 | -61.52 |
| 15 Kyllachy | 251 | 18 | 7.17% | 72 | 28.69% | 0.66 | -136.27 |
| 16 Footstepsinthesand | 157 | 18 | 11.47% | 47 | 29.94% | 0.92 | -48.74 |
| 17 Exceed And Excel (AUS) | 182 | 16 | 8.79% | 54 | 29.67% | 0.72 | -69.07 |
| 18 Equiano (FR) | 163 | 16 | 9.82% | 43 | 26.38% | 0.94 | -63.99 |
| 19 Mehmas (IRE) | 140 | 16 | 11.43% | 40 | 28.57% | 0.98 | +11.25 |
| 20 New Approach (IRE) | 84 | 16 | 19.05% | 25 | 29.76% | 1.25 | -2.09 |
Redcar Flat · Since 2010
Betting Tips for Redcar Flat
Do not judge the Two-Year-Old Trophy by the track it is run on
Pipalong (1998), Captain Rio (2001), Somnus (2002, who became European Champion Sprinter two years later), Body And Soul (2012), and Limato (2014, July Cup and Prix de la Foret winner). The weights come from the median auction price of the sire’s yearlings rather than from official ratings, which brings Group-class juveniles to a Redcar Saturday on terms they would not get elsewhere. That is a reason to take the race — and the horses coming out of it — seriously. It is not evidence that ordinary Redcar juvenile form is under-priced: that is a separate claim, and nothing on this page measures it.
William Haggas at 30.99% from 142 Redcar runners is the standout targeted raider
Haggas wins 44 of his 142 Redcar runners – 30.99% – exceptional from a selective volume, and the Somerville Lodge yard ships north when conditions and target races align. His A/E of 1.00 means the market has it about right, so the strike rate is a reason to respect his runners rather than to back them blind. Roger Varian is the next-best visiting Newmarket raider on strike rate (26.25% from 80), but his Redcar runners have historically returned less than their SP implied at A/E 0.81. The best figure against the market in the table belongs to Ed Bethell: 24.47% from 94 at A/E 1.19 for +£21.66 — historical outperformance of his prices, not a promise about today’s.
Daniel Tudhope at 20.91% strike from 416 rides is the elite jockey angle – genuinely a Redcar specialist
Tudhope is the standout and it is not close: 87 winners from 416 rides at 20.91%, A/E 1.11 and +£76.54 to level stakes — the only rider in the table returning a level-stakes profit worth the name, David Allan’s 889 rides having produced +£1.34. Rowan Scott (A/E 1.10 from 241) and Jason Hart (1.03 from 508) are the only other riders here who have beaten their SP-implied expectation. At the other end Tom Eaves carries the table’s biggest loss — 665 rides, 7.07%, £298.52 down at A/E 0.74 — though the lowest A/E of all is Barry McHugh’s 0.56.
The five-furlong course is one of Britain’s strongest for front-runners
The published pace indicator ranks Redcar fourth of thirty-one courses for front-runners over five furlongs, and 27th of thirty over the straight mile — the same track, opposite answers, which is why the trip is the first thing to establish when you read the pace of a Redcar race. On fast ground At The Races puts it plainly: “when conditions are riding fast, it can sometimes be difficult to make up ground from off the pace.” That is course knowledge rather than a measured going split; no published sample separates Redcar’s run-style figures by ground.
Low draw plus early speed at five furlongs is the one Redcar shape the evidence supports
Across 49 five-furlong handicaps of seven or more runners between 2021 and 2025, nearly half were won from the lowest third of the draw and 21 of the 49 by one of the two lowest-drawn horses. The same study splits it by run style: front-runners drawn in the best third won 8 of 23, 34.8%. Read that for what it is — run-style figures classify a horse by how it was ridden, which is known only after the race, so they measure the value of getting the lead rather than the return on backing one you expect to lead. It does not extend to six furlongs, where the only trip-specific read points the other way, and it does not extend to the Two-Year-Old Trophy, which is not a handicap.
Which sire lines have historically beaten their price at Redcar
Kodiac leads the table on winners (46 from 357) but at A/E 0.93 and £119.19 down, which is the pattern with the popular sprint lines here. Seven of the twenty have returned more than their SP implied over the period, led by New Approach (A/E 1.25 from 84), Showcasing (1.23 from 174), Bahamian Bounty (1.21 from 203) and Lope De Vega (1.19 from 100, +£55.37). Outside the top 20, Major Cadeaux has returned +£131.35 from 62 runners at A/E 1.84. At the other end Kyllachy (251 runs, A/E 0.66), Exceed And Excel (182, 0.72) and Dandy Man (305, 0.78) have all come in well short of their prices. These are since-2010 aggregates across every distance, age and class, so read them as a record rather than a system.
Tim Easterby’s winner count at Redcar is volume, not value
Easterby tops the winner count with 128 wins from 1,564 runs – more than any trainer at Redcar – but at an 8.18% strike rate, an A/E of 0.80 and £515.48 of level-stakes losses, the biggest loss in this table. Whether that is name recognition or something else is not something a since-2010 aggregate can settle — what it does say is that across this since-2010 sample his runners returned less than their prices implied. The reliable name at volume is David O’Meara (14.81% from 756, A/E 1.00), and the best figure against the market in the ranking above is Ed Bethell at 24.47% from 94 for A/E 1.19.
Work out why a horse won here before valuing the form anywhere else
A Redcar win can mean very different things. An uncontested lead over the straight five furlongs, on a course with no bend to negotiate at all, is a different performance from a staying win round the bends, where the tricky bottom turn and the five-furlong home straight do the sorting. Match the attributes rather than a list of names — flat throughout, galloping, a long home straight, and on the sprint course no turn to be lost on. A horse whose Redcar form was built on getting an easy lead is being asked a different question at a stiff, undulating or uphill track, and the nearby-track cards below give the shape of each neighbour.
The round course gives you nothing to bet on in the draw
A 170-race round-course sample from 2011 to 2021 had low and high dead level on 9.9% each with the middle third slightly behind, and the most recent normalised read — 56 races from nine to twelve furlongs between June 2023 and June 2026 — produces no spread its own compilers will call a bias. The two sharp bends matter for jockey positioning, not for stall number. Stamina at the trip, pace judgement and the ability to find a running line through a five-furlong home straight are what decide these races.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Backing closers on fast ground. Redcar’s long home straight and free-draining surface mean horses well off the pace can struggle to make up ground when the going rides quick. Front-runners and prominent racers can be that much harder to reel in. Match run style to track demand: prominent racers, not deep closers, on good or faster going.
- Treating Redcar as a low-grade Northern circuit track. The Two-Year-Old Trophy roll of honour includes a European Champion Sprinter (Somnus) and a July Cup winner (Limato). Henry Candy rated the July Cup “probably the outstanding performance” of Limato’s career, but called his Redcar Trophy run as a juvenile “absolutely extraordinary”. The Trophy is not a handicap: its weights come from the median auction price of the sire’s yearlings, which is what attracts Group-class juveniles. Take the race and its graduates seriously.
- Backing Tim Easterby runners on volume alone. Easterby has the most winners at Redcar of any trainer in the table, but from 1,564 runners at an 8.18% strike rate and A/E 0.80. Look instead at the per-runner efficient names (Haggas 30.99%, Varian 26.25%, Bethell 24.47%) and at who has actually beaten the market: only Bethell (1.19) and D Carroll (1.02) sit above A/E 1.00, with O’Meara, Haggas and Tinkler level at 1.00.
- Treating the round course and the straight course as one draw analysis. They are different tracks and they answer differently — but the difference is not the old “low in the sprints, high round the bends” rule. Five furlongs on the straight favours low draws; six and seven furlongs and the straight mile read broadly fair, with the only trip-specific six-furlong study pointing slightly high; and the round course is fair at every trip anyone has measured. Confirm the course and the trip before applying any draw logic here.
- Following Duran Fentiman or Tom Eaves on volume. Both ride enormous numbers at Redcar (569 and 665 rides respectively) but at exceptionally weak strike rates (4.92% and 7.07%), and Eaves is £298.52 down to level stakes. Volume creates name recognition; it does not create value. Focus on the riders who have beaten their price instead — Daniel Tudhope (20.91%, A/E 1.11), Rowan Scott (1.10) and Jason Hart (1.03).
- Assuming the going reverses everything. Softer ground makes early speed harder to sustain and asks more of a horse’s stamina, and the fast-ground difficulty of recovering lost ground eases — but no published sample splits Redcar’s run-style figures by going, so treat a hold-up bias on soft as a reasonable expectation to check against the day’s racing, not a rule to bet to.
Redcar Racecourse FAQs
Is there a draw bias at Redcar?
Which way does Redcar race, and what kind of track is it?
Does the going change how Redcar plays?
Which trainers and jockeys do best at Redcar?
What is the most reliable angle, and the biggest mistake at Redcar?
Nearby Tracks
Catterick
Sharp and undulating — speed and a low draw.
Thirsk
Sharp, flat left-hander — high-draw sprint bias.
York
Wide, galloping, fair — draw shifts on soft ground.
Ripon
Sharp, undulating right-hander — pace matters more than the draw.
Beverley
Stiff uphill finish — strong 5f low-draw bias.
Doncaster
Galloping and fair — straight course and round track.
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