Racecourse Guide

Doncaster
National Hunt

Town Moor, Doncaster, South Yorkshire · home of the Great Yorkshire Chase

⬤ National Hunt
Turf
Left-Handed
Galloping

Shape

Oval ~1m7½f

Track Type

Galloping

Fences

11 per circuit

Hurdles

7 per circuit

Home Straight

4 fences

Run-in

~220 yards

Direction

Left-handed

Course Highlight

Great Yorkshire Chase

Course Overview

Track Breakdown

Doncaster’s jumps course shares its footprint with the Flat track on the wide-open expanse of Town Moor — left-handed, largely flat, and galloping in character, with a circuit of around one mile seven and a half furlongs. It’s a fair, sweeping track without the tight turns or steep gradients that catch horses out at sharper circuits, and the going rides reliably thanks to good natural drainage.

That doesn’t make it a soft touch for jumping. The back straight carries four fences — a water jump first up, then an open ditch third — before the course rises through a short uphill section carrying three more fences, the middle one another open ditch. Four plain fences follow after the turn for home, finishing over a run-in of roughly 220 yards. At The Races’ course guide is direct about the effect: despite being “surprisingly” fair for such a galloping track, the sequencing — particularly the last ditch — makes Doncaster “quite a tough track for a novice chaser,” in the words of jockey Mick Fitzgerald.

National Hunt racing at Doncaster has a more interrupted history than the Flat side suggests. Jumping was suspended in 1911 and didn’t return until December 1946, a 35-year gap driven by a post-war “spirit of optimism” rather than any single decisive event. The Great Yorkshire Chase — now the track’s signature jumps race — was meant to launch the following year but was snowed off, finally running for the first time in 1948. Its £2,100 prize fund that year was worth more than the Cheltenham Gold Cup’s at the time.

The Jumps Course

Circuit Left-handed, ~1m7½f, flat and galloping, shared footprint with the Flat track
Fences 11 per circuit — water jump 1st, open ditch 3rd in the back straight; another open ditch mid-way through the uphill section; 4 plain fences after the turn for home
Hurdles 7 flights per circuit
Run-in Around 220 yards from the last obstacle
Run style A fair, galloping test that rewards a horse jumping cleanly and at pace rather than punishing a particular running style outright

Track & History

NH suspended 1911 to December 1946 — a 35-year gap before jumps racing resumed
Great Yorkshire Chase First run 1948 (a planned 1947 debut was snowed off); Cool Customer’s winning weight of 12st 7lb remains the race record
Redevelopment £34m rebuild in 2006–07 replaced the 1960s grandstand with a new five-tier stand
A first for Britain Doncaster became the first British racecourse to install artificial hurdles (EASYFIX Equine)
NH season Roughly 11 jumps racedays a year, November to March, alongside the separate Flat programme

Notable Races

The Racing Calendar

Premier Handicap · January

Great Yorkshire Chase

Doncaster’s signature jumps race since 1948, run over roughly 3 miles. Now a Premier Handicap rather than a graded race following the BHA’s 2023 reclassification, but still one of the season’s most historic staying chases — 1950 winner Freebooter and 1957 winner ESB both went on to win the Grand National.

Grade 2 · January

River Don Novices’ Hurdle

Run over roughly 3 miles on Great Yorkshire Chase weekend, explicitly framed as a stepping stone to the Grade 1 novice hurdles at the Cheltenham and Aintree festivals.

Grade 2 · January

Yorkshire Rose Mares’ Hurdle

A two-mile Grade 2 for mares run the same weekend, first staged in 2008. Its past-winners list — including Annie Power, Vroum Vroum Mag and Epatante — marks it out as genuine Cheltenham Mares’ Hurdle prep.

Class 2 · February/March

Grimthorpe Handicap Chase

Run over 3m2f and 19 fences, explicitly billed by the course as a key Grand National trial — 2016 winner The Last Samuri went on to finish second at Aintree the following month.

Season Opener · November

Jumps Season Opener

The first jumps card of the winter, kicking off Doncaster’s roughly 11-day NH season that runs through to March before Flat racing resumes with the Lincoln Handicap.

Handicap Programme · Season-long

Handicap Chases & Hurdles

Doncaster’s bread-and-butter jumps programme runs alongside the graded feature races across the November–March season, with the fair, galloping track a genuine test for staying types of all levels.

Pace Bias

The Number That Matters

Doncaster doesn’t carry the kind of sharp-turn or short-run-in reputation that produces a strong, well-documented pace bias — course guides consistently describe it as a fair, galloping track without the geography to hand a decisive edge to front-runners or hold-up horses. The one genuine complication is the fence sequencing: with a water jump and open ditch inside the first three obstacles and another ditch on the uphill section, jumping cleanly and efficiently through that stretch matters more here than pure early gallop.

Nothing in the published research quantifies a running-style split for Doncaster’s jumps course with hard percentages — unlike some sharper tracks, no course-specific strike-rate data surfaced for front-runners versus hold-up types here. Treat the page’s Run Style Bias section below as a reasoned, qualitative read on the track’s known character rather than a data-backed statistic, and don’t apply the kind of confident pace angle that would suit a tighter course.

Run Style Bias — Chases (qualitative)

Handy / Prominent

─ Slight Edge

Mid-Division

─ Fair

Hold-up

─ Fair

Soft / Heavy ground

─ Stamina rewarded

The near-even spread above reflects genuine course character, not a data gap being papered over — Doncaster’s fair, galloping layout simply doesn’t hand a structural advantage to any one running style the way a tight, short-run-in track does. The clean-jumping requirement around the water jump and open ditches is the more reliable handicapping angle than position alone.

Statistics · Since 2010

Top Trainers & Jockeys

Trainer	Runs	Wins	Win%	Places	Place%	A/E	P/L
1 Henderson, N J	314	88	28.03%	164	52.23%	0.96	-5.08
2 King, A	345	54	15.65%	130	37.68%	0.81	-55.26
3 Nicholls, P F	195	45	23.08%	77	39.49%	0.93	-50.13
4 McCain Jnr, D	306	40	13.07%	103	33.66%	0.86	+69.36
5 Skelton, Daniel	252	34	13.49%	83	32.94%	0.80	-80.01
6 Pauling, Ben	195	31	15.90%	60	30.77%	0.90	+2.13
7 Bailey, K C	131	28	21.37%	48	36.64%	1.03	+13.31
8 Lavelle, Miss E C	121	27	22.31%	50	41.32%	1.15	+0.35
9 Longsdon, C E	230	25	10.87%	74	32.17%	0.77	-50.13
10 Twiston-Davies, N A	185	25	13.51%	53	28.65%	0.88	-63.93
11 Richards, N G	155	24	15.48%	55	35.48%	1.17	+25.49
12 O’Neill, Jonjo and AJ	223	23	10.31%	58	26.01%	0.83	-59.45
13 Williams, Ian	176	22	12.50%	45	25.57%	1.02	-8.73
14 Reveley, K G	162	22	13.58%	63	38.89%	1.09	-21.82
15 Greenall, O / Guerriero, J	118	22	18.64%	41	34.75%	1.31	+2.75
16 Mulholland, N P	122	21	17.21%	42	34.43%	1.10	-10.32
17 O’Brien, Fergal	118	17	14.41%	41	34.75%	0.83	-16.14
18 Smith, Mrs S J	159	15	9.43%	47	29.56%	0.73	-50.87
19 King, N B	136	15	11.03%	39	28.68%	0.97	-29.93
20 George, T R	133	15	11.28%	42	31.58%	0.70	-4.21

Doncaster NH, since 2010. N J Henderson leads the page on volume (88 wins from 314, 28.0% SR, A/E 0.96). The real value signals are N G Richards (A/E 1.17, +£25.49), Greenall, O / Guerriero, J (A/E 1.31, +£2.75) and Miss E C Lavelle (A/E 1.15, +£0.35). Oppose the over-bet T R George (A/E 0.70), Mrs S J Smith (A/E 0.73) and C E Longsdon (A/E 0.77).

Jockey	Runs	Wins	Win%	Places	Place%	A/E	P/L
1 Hughes, Brian	442	57	12.90%	154	34.84%	0.80	-117.41
2 Bass, David	133	31	23.31%	52	39.10%	1.11	+35.17
3 Boinville, Nico	113	30	26.55%	48	42.48%	0.98	-4.35
4 Reveley, James	172	28	16.28%	73	42.44%	1.23	+63.89
5 Brennan, P J	124	26	20.97%	51	41.13%	1.15	+81.21
6 Brooke, Henry	178	25	14.04%	60	33.71%	1.20	-2.38
7 Twiston-Davies, Sam	170	20	11.76%	50	29.41%	0.71	-51.51
8 Bellamy, Tom	152	20	13.16%	42	27.63%	0.79	-57.18
9 Quinlan, Jack	124	20	16.13%	38	30.65%	1.16	-25.41
10 Bowen, James C	105	20	19.05%	48	45.71%	0.91	-33.37
11 Tinkler, Andrew	95	20	21.05%	31	32.63%	1.18	+40.73
12 Skelton, Harry	125	19	15.20%	45	36.00%	0.76	-44.63
13 Aspell, Leighton	102	19	18.63%	40	39.22%	1.12	-15.42
14 Coleman, A	113	18	15.93%	38	33.63%	0.90	-40.83
15 Scholfield, Nick	95	18	18.95%	30	31.58%	1.17	+26.42
16 Costello, Dougie	93	18	19.35%	30	32.26%	1.42	+47.66
17 Quinlan, Sean	168	17	10.12%	53	31.55%	0.86	+29.88
18 Johnson, Richard	120	17	14.17%	45	37.50%	0.74	-17.95
19 Jacob, Daryl	107	17	15.89%	34	31.78%	0.82	-38.18
20 Fehily, Noel	91	17	18.68%	28	30.77%	1.16	+14.55

Doncaster NH, since 2010. Brian Hughes leads the riders on volume (57 wins from 442, 12.9% SR, A/E 0.80), though the market prices that in. The real value signals are P J Brennan (A/E 1.15, +£81.21), James Reveley (A/E 1.23, +£63.89) and Dougie Costello (A/E 1.42, +£47.66). Oppose the over-bet Sam Twiston-Davies (A/E 0.71), Richard Johnson (A/E 0.74) and Harry Skelton (A/E 0.76).

Sire Statistics · Since 2010

Top Sires

Sire	Runs	Wins	Win%	Places	Place%	A/E	P/L
1 Presenting	274	42	15.33%	91	33.21%	0.96	-66.67
2 Oscar (IRE)	172	30	17.44%	62	36.05%	0.93	-64.09
3 Milan	190	26	13.68%	59	31.05%	0.88	+37.50
4 Getaway (GER)	171	24	14.04%	53	30.99%	0.97	-34.90
5 Westerner	138	24	17.39%	52	37.68%	1.13	-11.55
6 Midnight Legend	186	23	12.37%	63	33.87%	0.80	-61.24
7 Kayf Tara	215	22	10.23%	58	26.98%	0.71	-87.71
8 King’s Theatre (IRE)	170	21	12.35%	51	30.00%	0.76	-60.60
9 Shirocco (GER)	115	21	18.26%	38	33.04%	1.31	+20.59
10 Beneficial	166	20	12.05%	44	26.51%	0.82	-79.58
11 Flemensfirth (USA)	183	19	10.38%	53	28.96%	0.68	-118.78
12 Doyen (IRE)	86	19	22.09%	35	40.70%	1.20	+11.51
13 Gold Well	84	17	20.24%	34	40.48%	1.22	+40.21
14 Shantou (USA)	91	13	14.29%	23	25.27%	0.83	-45.93
15 Yeats (IRE)	133	12	9.02%	34	25.56%	0.70	-43.50
16 Soldier Of Fortune (IRE)	60	12	20.00%	27	45.00%	1.17	+27.58
17 Kalanisi (IRE)	65	11	16.92%	17	26.15%	1.12	-15.14
18 Martaline	63	11	17.46%	20	31.75%	1.00	-12.30
19 Mount Nelson	54	11	20.37%	20	37.04%	1.39	+3.46
20 Mahler	110	10	9.09%	39	35.45%	0.62	-47.24

Doncaster NH, since 2010. Presenting tops the sire list (42 wins from 274, 15.3% SR, A/E 0.96). The real value signals are Gold Well (A/E 1.22, +£40.21), Soldier Of Fortune (IRE) (A/E 1.17, +£27.58) and Shirocco (GER) (A/E 1.31, +£20.59). Oppose the over-bet Mahler (A/E 0.62), Flemensfirth (USA) (A/E 0.68) and Yeats (IRE) (A/E 0.70).

Insider Knowledge

Betting Angles

🐎

Clean jumping matters more than running style

With a water jump and open ditch inside the first three fences, and another ditch mid-circuit, horses that jump fluently through that sequence hold the edge — not necessarily front-runners or hold-up types specifically.

📅

Know your race’s actual grade

The BHA’s 2023 handicap reforms reclassified several Doncaster jumps races — the Great Yorkshire Chase and Grimthorpe Chase are now Premier/Class 2 handicaps rather than the graded races some older sources still describe. Check current status before betting on reputation alone.

🎯

The Grimthorpe is a genuine National trial

Unlike some so-called “trials,” the Grimthorpe Handicap Chase has real form to back the billing — recent runners have gone on to place at Aintree the following month. Worth tracking notebook horses from this race specifically.

🌧️

Good drainage keeps the ground fair

Doncaster’s flat, well-draining layout means testing ground is less common here than at many winter jumps tracks — don’t assume a stamina-test bias without checking the actual going first.

📈

Course experience through the ditches is a real edge

A horse that’s already negotiated Doncaster’s specific fence sequence — water jump early, ditches at the 3rd and mid-circuit — without incident is a more reliable proposition than one debuting over the track, regardless of overall class.

🏆

Mares’ and novice form here travels to the Festival

The Yorkshire Rose Mares’ Hurdle and River Don Novices’ Hurdle are both genuine Cheltenham prep races — treat strong efforts in either as real signal for March, not just a good local placing.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Assuming Doncaster’s jumps course carries the same strong pace bias as sharper, shorter-run-in tracks — the data doesn’t support a decisive running-style edge here.
Treating the Great Yorkshire Chase or Grimthorpe Chase as still holding their old graded status after the BHA’s 2023 handicap reclassification.
Overlooking the fence-sequencing angle — the water jump and open ditches in the first half of the circuit are a more reliable source of trouble than the course’s flat, galloping reputation suggests.
Assuming Doncaster’s rich Flat heritage (the St Leger) means its NH history is equally deep — jumps racing here was suspended for 35 years and remains a smaller, more recently rebuilt part of the calendar.

Common Questions

Doncaster Racecourse FAQs

Is there a pace or front-running bias at Doncaster over jumps?

No strong, data-backed bias either way. Doncaster’s fair, flat, galloping layout doesn’t hand a structural edge to front-runners or hold-up horses the way tighter tracks do — course guides consistently describe it as an even, sweeping test. The more reliable angle is jumping cleanly through the water jump and open ditches inside the first half of the circuit.

How many fences and hurdles are there at Doncaster?

Eleven fences per circuit for chases, including a water jump first up in the back straight, an open ditch third, and another open ditch partway through a short uphill section — plus seven hurdle flights per circuit. The run-in is roughly 220 yards from the last obstacle.

What is the Great Yorkshire Chase?

Doncaster’s signature jumps race, first run in 1948 after National Hunt racing returned to the course following a 35-year suspension from 1911. Now run as a Premier Handicap over roughly three miles each January, it has a strong history of crossover with the Grand National — 1950 winner Freebooter and 1957 winner ESB both went on to win at Aintree.

What’s the best Grand National trial at Doncaster?

The Grimthorpe Handicap Chase, run each February or March over 3m2f and 19 fences. Doncaster’s own course materials explicitly bill it as a key National trial, and recent form supports that — 2016 winner The Last Samuri finished runner-up at Aintree the following month.

Explore

Other Jumps Tracks

Aintree

Home of the Grand National — Mildmay and National courses.

Cheltenham

Old Course and New Course — the home of jump racing.

Kempton Park

Sharp, flat right-hander — home of the King George.

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