Racecourse Guide

Catterick
National Hunt

Catterick Bridge, North Yorkshire · sharp, tight, and unforgiving of horses that aren’t travelling

⬤ National Hunt
Turf
Left-Handed
Sharp

Shape

Oval ~1m3f

Track Type

Sharp, Undulating

Fences

8 per circuit

Hurdles

5 per circuit

Home Straight

3 fences

Run-in

240 yards

Direction

Left-handed

Course Highlight

North Yorks GN Feature Handicap

Course Overview

Track Breakdown

Catterick is a sharp, left-handed oval of around a mile and three furlongs, with pronounced undulations and tight turns — though the jumps circuit is noticeably less severe in that respect than the track’s famously quirky Flat course. Racing here can be traced back to informal meetings in the mid-17th century, with the first official card run in 1783 and a permanent course established in 1813. The track has been run by the independent Catterick Racecourse Company Ltd since 1923 — it is not part of any of the large multi-track operating groups. The current grandstand still shows the framework of its 1906 build despite many alterations since, and a new hospitality building, the Dales Stand, opened in 2021.

What defines Catterick over jumps is tightness: fences and hurdles are set close together, particularly down the back straight, which sharpens the test even though the obstacles themselves are considered fair and jumpable at speed. Jockey Mick Fitzgerald has summed up the key requirement as simply needing “a horse under you that’s travelling” — falling off the bridle with a circuit still to run leaves very little room to recover. The result is a course with more fallers than its modest fences alone would suggest, because horses are typically ridden at a stronger pace than the obstacles themselves demand.

The Chase Course

Circuit Left-handed, ~1m3f, sharp with secondary undulations
Fences 8 per circuit — 5 down the back straight (middle one an open ditch), 3 after turning for home (middle one an open ditch) — no water jump
Run-in 240 yards from the last fence, generally flat and pacey rather than a stamina-sapping finish
Run style Tight spacing and sharp turns punish horses that aren’t travelling with a circuit to go

The Hurdles Course

Circuit Shares the same sharp left-handed oval
Hurdles 5 flights per circuit — 3 down the back straight, 2 in the home straight
Run style Accurate, fast jumping matters more than raw stamina over the shorter, sharper circuit

Notable Races

The Racing Calendar

Feature Handicap · January

North Yorkshire Grand National

Around 3m6f, 24 fences. Catterick’s flagship jumps race since 2003, succeeding the earlier North Yorkshire Handicap Chase — a race Red Rum won in 1972, the year before his first Grand National victory, under local trainer Anthony Gillam.

Season Opener · Late November

Start of the Jumps

Traditionally opens the North of England’s winter jumps calendar, kicking off Catterick’s card of handicaps and novice events through to spring.

Throughout the Season · Nov–April

Regular Handicap & Novice Programme

No Graded or Listed races are run at Catterick. The jumps calendar is built around competitive regional handicap chases and hurdles, novice and maiden hurdles, and conditional jockeys’ events.

Pace Bias

The Number That Matters

No course specifically publishes a quantified percentage or Impact Value breakdown for Catterick’s National Hunt track (the Flat course does have published draw-bias data, but that’s a separate discipline and shouldn’t be applied here). What exists instead is a strong, consistently repeated qualitative reputation: front-runners and handy racers are favoured because the tight turns and closely-set obstacles make it genuinely difficult to come from off the pace.

Run Style Bias — Chases & Hurdles (qualitative)

▲ Front-runners / Handy

─ Favoured

─ Mid-Division

─ Manageable

▼ Hold-up

─ Toughest Ask

Treat these bars as a reasoned reflection of the track’s well-documented character rather than a data-backed statistic. The underlying logic is straightforward and repeated across course guides and jockeys’ own accounts: with sharp turns and fences or hurdles set close together, a horse that isn’t already travelling well loses ground it rarely gets back. There’s also a genuine optical trap worth knowing — horses swinging wide off the home turn can look closer to the leaders than they actually are, a specifically noted quirk of watching (and riding) races here.

Statistics · Since 2010

Top Trainers & Jockeys

Trainer	Runs	Wins	Win%	Places	Place%	A/E	P/L
1 McCain Jnr, D	487	89	18.28%	198	40.66%	0.94	-37.60
2 Smith, Mrs S J	311	59	18.97%	112	36.01%	1.17	+98.03
3 Hammond, Micky	490	42	8.57%	124	25.31%	0.86	-101.31
4 Ellison, B	139	29	20.86%	59	42.45%	1.06	-13.48
5 O’Neill, Jonjo and AJ	99	26	26.26%	46	46.46%	1.19	+43.83
6 Reveley, K G	110	24	21.82%	42	38.18%	1.32	+63.06
7 Menzies, Rebecca	127	23	18.11%	42	33.07%	1.22	+11.97
8 Kirby, P A	209	22	10.53%	54	25.84%	1.04	-65.71
9 England, Sam	117	20	17.09%	46	39.32%	1.03	-23.71
10 Skelton, Daniel	72	18	25.00%	30	41.67%	0.85	-21.97
11 Snowden, Jamie	41	17	41.46%	27	65.85%	1.18	-0.62
12 Easterby, T D	153	14	9.15%	43	28.10%	0.81	-28.50
13 Keighley, M	62	14	22.58%	25	40.32%	1.18	-8.26
14 Ferguson, J P	21	13	61.90%	15	71.43%	1.62	+16.01
15 Foster, Miss J E	111	11	9.91%	27	24.32%	1.23	+12.88
16 Sayer, Mrs Dianne	82	10	12.20%	21	25.61%	1.49	+77.25
17 Candlish, Jennie	80	10	12.50%	30	37.50%	0.81	-29.52
18 Quinn, J J	48	10	20.83%	26	54.17%	0.76	-18.76
19 Grant, C	163	9	5.52%	36	22.09%	0.54	-99.45
20 Easterby, M W	78	9	11.54%	26	33.33%	1.08	-12.37

Catterick NH, since 2010. D McCain Jnr leads the page on volume (89 wins from 487, 18.3% SR, A/E 0.94). The real value signals are Mrs S J Smith (A/E 1.17, +£98.03), Mrs Dianne Sayer (A/E 1.49, +£77.25) and K G Reveley (A/E 1.32, +£63.06). Oppose the over-bet C Grant (A/E 0.54) and J J Quinn (A/E 0.76).

Jockey	Runs	Wins	Win%	Places	Place%	A/E	P/L
1 Hughes, Brian	493	78	15.82%	189	38.34%	0.88	-90.79
2 Cook, Danny	130	29	22.31%	59	45.38%	1.15	-7.76
3 Quinlan, Sean	230	27	11.74%	69	30.00%	0.92	-67.08
4 Maguire, Jason	116	25	21.55%	53	45.69%	0.86	-32.87
5 Sheehan, Gavin	74	24	32.43%	43	58.11%	1.14	-0.22
6 Reveley, James	109	23	21.10%	41	37.61%	1.13	+49.31
7 Brooke, Henry	245	20	8.16%	64	26.12%	0.71	-132.06
8 England, Jonathan	135	18	13.33%	52	38.52%	0.86	-46.71
9 Colliver, J	132	18	13.64%	33	25.00%	1.53	+19.90
10 O’Farrell, C	114	16	14.04%	36	31.58%	1.19	+4.08
11 Chapman, Ross	107	16	14.95%	29	27.10%	1.21	-41.39
12 Kennedy, W T	68	15	22.06%	30	44.12%	1.27	+10.77
13 McCoy, A P	35	15	42.86%	21	60.00%	1.48	+16.82
14 O’Neill, Jonjo (Jr)	44	14	31.82%	22	50.00%	1.51	+52.26
15 Mania, Ryan	111	13	11.71%	38	34.23%	0.87	-32.13
16 Skelton, Harry	57	13	22.81%	28	49.12%	0.78	+14.38
17 Coleman, A	47	13	27.66%	28	59.57%	1.02	-3.92
18 Hamilton, Jamie	176	12	6.82%	41	23.30%	0.60	-106.09
19 Johnson, Richard	38	12	31.58%	23	60.53%	1.10	+12.97
20 Renwick, Wilson	89	11	12.36%	22	24.72%	0.97	-18.73

Catterick NH, since 2010. Brian Hughes leads the riders on volume (78 wins from 493, 15.8% SR, A/E 0.88), though the market prices that in. The real value signals are Jonjo (Jr) O’Neill (A/E 1.51, +£52.26), J Colliver (A/E 1.53, +£19.90) and A P McCoy (A/E 1.48, +£16.82). Oppose the over-bet Jamie Hamilton (A/E 0.60) and Henry Brooke (A/E 0.71).

Sire Statistics · Since 2010

Top Sires

Sire	Runs	Wins	Win%	Places	Place%	A/E	P/L
1 Presenting	141	22	15.60%	49	34.75%	1.04	-20.07
2 Getaway (GER)	93	20	21.51%	38	40.86%	1.21	+52.64
3 Milan	140	19	13.57%	39	27.86%	0.86	-48.63
4 Mahler	99	18	18.18%	28	28.28%	1.07	-19.99
5 Flemensfirth (USA)	114	17	14.91%	37	32.46%	0.84	-38.15
6 Oscar (IRE)	101	17	16.83%	32	31.68%	1.09	+14.29
7 Westerner	87	14	16.09%	30	34.48%	1.01	-19.17
8 Yeats (IRE)	93	13	13.98%	33	35.48%	0.79	-23.18
9 Midnight Legend	75	13	17.33%	28	37.33%	0.93	-31.31
10 Gold Well	64	12	18.75%	22	34.38%	1.12	-8.83
11 Black Sam Bellamy (IRE)	48	12	25.00%	19	39.58%	1.31	-15.96
12 Balko (FR)	33	11	33.33%	17	51.52%	1.37	+21.76
13 Kayf Tara	103	10	9.71%	31	30.10%	0.64	-65.87
14 Cloudings (IRE)	46	10	21.74%	18	39.13%	1.32	+3.77
15 Robin Des Pres (FR)	40	10	25.00%	16	40.00%	1.58	+3.57
16 Beneficial	101	9	8.91%	29	28.71%	0.62	-50.52
17 Walk In The Park (IRE)	56	9	16.07%	21	37.50%	0.83	-18.85
18 Sageburg (IRE)	37	9	24.32%	16	43.24%	1.51	+51.08
19 Shantou (USA)	55	8	14.55%	15	27.27%	0.77	-29.92
20 Dansili	45	7	15.56%	20	44.44%	1.16	-12.37

Catterick NH, since 2010. Presenting tops the sire list (22 wins from 141, 15.6% SR, A/E 1.04). The real value signals are Getaway (GER) (A/E 1.21, +£52.64), Sageburg (IRE) (A/E 1.51, +£51.08) and Balko (FR) (A/E 1.37, +£21.76). Oppose the over-bet Beneficial (A/E 0.62), Kayf Tara (A/E 0.64) and Shantou (USA) (A/E 0.77).

Insider Knowledge

Betting Angles

🏇

The Sharpest Value Names Here

Jonjo O’Neill’s yard is the standout trainer angle at real volume (10 from 27, A/E 1.54, +£21.04), while in the saddle Thomas Willmott has returned +£75.50 from just 32 rides (A/E 1.64), with R P McLernon close behind (A/E 1.68, +£11.01).

🐴

Sue Smith Owns the Big One

Four winners of the North Yorkshire Grand National in the last seven years — the strongest specialist record in Catterick’s flagship race.

📍

Local Trainers Punch Above Their Weight

Phil Kirby, based at East Appleton just minutes from the track, won the 2020 North Yorkshire Grand National with Little Bruce.

⚡

Position Matters More Than Class

Tight turns and closely-set obstacles make it hard to recover from off the pace — a horse that’s travelling with a circuit to run is the key requirement, echoed by jockeys who ride here regularly.

👁️

Don’t Trust Your Eyes on the Home Turn

Horses swinging wide off the final bend can look deceptively close to the leaders — a genuinely noted optical effect at this course, not just a betting cliché.

🐎

Getaway and Sageburg Lead the Sires

Getaway (GER) tops the sires for wins and profit (A/E 1.21, +67.18) and Sageburg (IRE) backs it up (A/E 1.71, +54.08); Yeats (IRE), Shirocco (GER) and Presenting are the fades at A/E 0.61-0.67.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Assuming Catterick hosts Graded or Listed jumps races — it doesn’t; every race here is a handicap, novice, maiden or conditional event.
Treating the fences as genuinely difficult obstacles — they’re fair and jumpable at speed, and most fallers come from pace and tight spacing rather than the fences themselves.
Applying the Flat course’s published draw-bias statistics to the jumps course — they are separate tracks and the numbers don’t transfer.

Common Questions

Catterick Racecourse FAQs

Does Catterick host any Graded or Listed jumps races?

No. Catterick is a regional track without a Graded ladder. Its clear feature event is the North Yorkshire Grand National, a valuable but unclassified handicap chase run every January.

Is there a genuine pace bias at Catterick over jumps?

Course guides and jockeys consistently describe a front-running/handy bias driven by the track’s tight turns and closely-spaced obstacles, but no source publishes a quantified percentage breakdown for the NH course specifically — unlike the Flat course, which does have published draw-bias data.

Who owns Catterick Racecourse?

The independent Catterick Racecourse Company Ltd, formed in 1923 — Catterick is not part of any of the large multi-track operating groups.

What is Catterick’s most famous jumps result?

Red Rum won the old North Yorkshire Handicap Chase here in 1972, the year before his first Grand National victory, trained locally by Anthony Gillam.

Explore

Other Jumps Tracks

Aintree

Home of the Grand National — Mildmay and National courses.

Ayr

Home of the Coral Scottish Grand National.

Doncaster

Fair, galloping left-hander — the Great Yorkshire Chase.

Want the thinking behind National Hunt bets?

FormDial posts every selection before the off with its full reasoning: the angle, the price, the logic. See how course analysis feeds into real selections.

Today’s Dial →

From the Formdial Shop

Going racing here?

The Trackside Companion is your day at the races, written to order — every race on your meeting’s card broken down, plus this track’s draw, angles and people distilled from the guide you’ve just read. Order at least a week before your raceday.

Plan your raceday →

CatterickNational Hunt