Bellewstown
National Hunt
Hill of Crockafotha, County Meath · 37km north of Dublin, above Drogheda
Turf hurdles only
Left-Handed
Sharp
Track Breakdown
Bellewstown has been racing on the Hill of Crockafotha since at least August 1726, when its first recorded meeting appeared in The Dublin Gazette and the Weekly Courier — which makes 2026 its 300th anniversary year, marked with a new weigh room and a heritage-themed “1726 Restaurant.” That makes it one of Ireland’s oldest racecourses, though not the oldest: Downpatrick’s documented racing goes back to 1685. Royalty maintained the connection for two centuries — in 1780 George Tandy, a former mayor of Drogheda, persuaded King George III to sponsor His Majesty’s Plate here, and the royal race survived until 1980. From the top of the hill the Mountains of Mourne and the Irish Sea fill the horizon; from the picnic rugs below, the sport is unpretentious summer-evening handicapping at its best.
One structural fact matters more than any other on the jumps side: Bellewstown has no chase course. National Hunt racing here is hurdles-only — five flights to a left-handed circuit of about a mile and one furlong, two in the back straight and the final three up the three-furlong, uphill home straight. The hurdles track sits outside the Flat course proper, and its bends, while sharp enough, are well cambered and less severe than the tighter inside line the Flat horses take.
The calendar has quietly grown. Older guides still describe a five-day, July-and-August-only course; the official 2026 fixture list shows nine racedays spread across April, July, August, September and October — with the three-day July festival (Thursday and Friday on the Flat, Saturday over hurdles, all evening cards) still the centrepiece. There is no black type of any kind at Bellewstown — every race is a maiden, handicap, novice or bumper — and the Saturday feature, the QuinnBet Bellewstown Hurdle, carried €60,000 in 2025, its most valuable running yet, with the winner earning free entry to the Guinness Galway Hurdle.
Charlie Swan, former champion Irish jump jockey — At The Races
Swan’s verdict — fairer than its reputation, no specialist’s track over hurdles — is exactly what the published analysis says too. Geegeez calls the hurdles pace picture “less conclusive” than the Flat course’s, one guide notes front-runners “can be caught” here, and another calls the jumps track flatly “very fair” with no strong pace bias. That’s worth underlining because the Flat sprint course a few yards away carries one of the stronger front-running reads in this guide series: the two tracks do not share a bias, and importing the Flat read onto the Saturday hurdles card is a genuine, avoidable mistake.
The betting texture here is small-field summer jumping: handicap hurdles, maiden hurdles and bumpers, no graded races, and a July Saturday that draws the big yards for one evening. The trainer figures come with a windows warning — Gordon Elliott’s Bellewstown strike rate reads 31% in one season snapshot, 18% over Timeform’s five seasons, and “21 career winners, double his nearest rival” in a third undated count; all can be true, and none should be quoted without its window. The steadiest figure on the books is Gavin Cromwell’s: three different sources across three different periods all put him at 20–21% here. Willie Mullins runs few horses at Bellewstown but strikes at around 30% when he does — with sources genuinely split on whether following him blind here has been profitable.
The most famous thing that ever happened at Bellewstown, though, happened at 20/1. On a June evening in 1975 — the 25th or 26th, depending on your source — Barney Curley landed the Yellow Sam coup on this hill: an unfancied hurdler backed in £50–£300 slips across the country’s betting shops while an accomplice held the course’s only working public phone line with a story about a dying aunt, blocking the off-course money from ever reaching the ring. Yellow Sam won by two and a half lengths; the payout came to roughly IR£300,000; and the phone box still stands by the parade ring as a monument to the day the bookmakers couldn’t phone home.
The Hurdles Track
- Layout ~1m1f left-handed oval on the hill — 5 flights per circuit: 2 down the back, 3 in the straight
- No fences There is no chase course at Bellewstown — hurdles and bumpers only
- Character Outside line, cambered bends — rides fairer and less sharp than the Flat track inside it (Swan)
- Finish The three-furlong straight climbs to the line — the last three flights come amid the rise
The July Festival
- Format Three evening cards, Thursday–Saturday (2–4 July in 2026, a week earlier than 2025)
- Codes Thursday and Friday on the Flat; Saturday is the jumps card
- Feature QuinnBet Bellewstown Hurdle — €60,000 in 2025, “by far the most valuable to date” per GM Kevin Coleman
- Bonus The winner earns free entry to the Guinness Galway Hurdle
Yellow Sam, 1975
- The coup Barney Curley’s masterpiece — ~£15,000 staked in small bets nationwide on a 20/1 shot
- The trick Bellewstown’s only working phone line held for ~25–30 minutes by a man with a “dying aunt”
- The result Yellow Sam won by 2½ lengths; bookmakers paid out roughly IR£300,000
- The relic The phone box is preserved at the course — Dettori posed with it after his 2021 Curley-tribute win
The Racing Calendar
The Fair Half of the Hill
Here is the honest position, and it is unusually well agreed: the hurdles track carries no strong pace bias. Geegeez calls the jumps pace data “less conclusive” than the Flat course’s, one guide notes the long straights let jockeys “fight for position” and that front-runners “can be caught,” a third calls the NH course simply “very fair” — and Swan’s rider’s view above says he found it easy enough to come from off the pace behind an honest gallop. The one positional edge every source does grant: being handy and balanced helps, because the cambered bends and the road crossings punish horses that can’t organise their legs. The bars below are a qualitative read, labelled as such — no Impact Values have been published for Bellewstown’s hurdles races.
Run Style — hurdles, qualitative read (no published course figures)
▲ Balance helps at the bends — mild edge only
▬ Fair — an honest gallop usually develops
▬ “Wasn’t hard to come from off the pace” — Swan
The bias that does exist at Bellewstown lives on the Flat sprint course, where front-runners at five furlongs win at nearly three times the rate of prominent racers and hold-up horses manage a 2.08% strike rate. Keep the two tracks separate in your head: the Saturday jumps card is the fair one. One quantified jumps-adjacent morsel, single-sourced and offered with that label: favourites won eight of eleven Bellewstown bumpers across one five-year sample, for a level-stakes plus of €8.50.
Top Trainers & Jockeys
Real Bellewstown figures (since 2010) will populate these tables once the data pull is finalised — the structure matches every other course guide.
| Trainer | Runs | Wins | Win% | Places | Place% | A/E | P/L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Jockey | Runs | Wins | Win% | Places | Place% | A/E | P/L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
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| 10 — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Top Sires
| Sire | Runs | Wins | Win% | Places | Place% | A/E | P/L |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2 — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 3 — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
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| 6 — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
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| 8 — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 9 — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 10 — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Betting Angles
Don’t import the Flat bias onto the Saturday card
The Flat sprint course is a front-runner’s track; the hurdles course, by every published read and the rider’s own account, is not. Treat pace angles built on Bellewstown Flat form as void over the flights — the fair-track read is the sourced one.
Balance beats brilliance on the hill
Cambered bends, undulations and genuine road crossings make this a coordination test. A well-balanced, handy type that has already handled a sharp track profiles far better than a long-striding galloper stretching out on the hill for the first time.
Cromwell is the stable number
Gavin Cromwell’s Bellewstown record holds at 20–21% across three different sources measuring three different windows — the only trainer figure here that barely moves however you slice it. Elliott’s reads 31%, 18% or “21 career wins” depending on the window; quote his with a date attached.
Mullins ships rarely — respect it when he does
Willie Mullins runs few horses on the hill but strikes at roughly 30% when he does. Sources genuinely disagree on whether blind-following has paid (+€28 in one dated sample, “slight loss” in another) — small samples swing; the strike rate is the stable part of the signal.
The watering is good — the sky still wins
Summer ground here rarely gets properly firm — the watering regime is well reported — but 27 September 2023 is the counter-example: sustained heavy rain forced the final two races to be abandoned mid-card. Evening ground on this hill is trustworthy, not weatherproof.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Expecting chase form — Bellewstown has no chase course at all. National Hunt here means hurdles and bumpers, five flights to the circuit, nothing over fences.
- Calling it “Ireland’s oldest racecourse.” Racing is recorded here since 1726 — a year before the Curragh’s first recorded meeting — but Downpatrick’s documented racing dates to 1685. “One of the oldest, racing since 1726” is the defensible line.
- Working from a stale fixture list — older guides say five days in July and August only; the official 2026 list shows nine racedays across April, July, August, September and October.
- Quoting any single trainer strike rate without its window. The same yards read wildly differently across season, five-season and career samples here — the small-course sample sizes magnify every difference.
Bellewstown Racecourse FAQs
Does Bellewstown have steeplechases?
What is the big jumps race at Bellewstown?
What was the Yellow Sam coup?
How old is Bellewstown racecourse?
What kind of track is Bellewstown for jumps racing?
Other Jumps Tracks
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Fairyhouse
The Irish Grand National’s home.
Leopardstown
Dublin’s dual-festival Grade 1 stage.
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