Racecourse Guide

Market Rasen
National Hunt

Lincolnshire · the county’s only racecourse, and a launchpad for future legends

⬤ National Hunt
Turf
Right-Handed
Sharp, Tight Oval

Shape

Right-Handed, Tight Oval ~1m2f

Track Type

Sharp, Mild Undulation

Fences

~8 per circuit, incl. water jump

Hurdles

5 per circuit

Run-in

~250-350yd estimates vary

Direction

Right-handed

Course Highlight

AP McCoy’s 4,192nd Winner 2014, record

Ownership

Jockey Club Racecourses

Course Overview

Track Breakdown

Market Rasen is right-handed, a tight, roughly rectangular circuit of about 1¼ miles with four sharp bends, fairly long straights, and mild undulation throughout. The turn into the home straight is the trickiest part of the track — slightly downhill, it catches out long-striding horses and rewards nippy, balanced types. The exact run-in length is genuinely disputed across sources, with estimates for the hurdle course ranging from just over a furlong to 350 yards, and the chase course shorter still; jockey Mick Fitzgerald has described the home straight as deceptively long. Around 8 fences a circuit is the most commonly cited figure, including a water jump in front of the stands, though at least one source gives a different 7-fence breakdown — treat the exact count as approximate rather than settled fact. The hurdle course has 5 flights a circuit. The course sits near the meeting point of three local hunts — Brocklesby, Southwold and Burton — which is where the founding company’s original name, Market Rasen United Hunts Steeplechases Limited, came from.

Racing near Market Rasen dates to the early 1800s, with Feast Week meetings held on other sites around the town from 1828, and a spring steeplechase fixture added in 1871 that has continued ever since. The course moved to its current site in 1924, with the founding company incorporated that May. Victor Lucas managed the track from 1945 to 1971 and designed much of the layout still in use today — the paddock, parade ring, stands and weighing room — while expanding the fixture list from 3 meetings a year to 12 by 1967. The course was sold to the Racecourse Holding Trust, a Jockey Club subsidiary, in 1967, and remains part of Jockey Club Racecourses today, one of 15 tracks in that group — not Arena Racing Company. No closures, scandals, or major incidents turned up in research on this course — a genuinely clean history.

Not many courses put such a premium on the ability to travel through a race as Market Rasen. Even though it’s relatively flat, it’s a hard place to make up a lot of ground. You can turn into the straight thinking you’ve loads of time to make a challenge but, if others quicken away from you at that point, you struggle to get back to them. If you kick from the turn in, though, it’s a fair way home and you almost look up with a furlong left and ask yourself ‘am I not there yet’. The home straight really is l-o-n-g.Mick Fitzgerald, former top jump jockey — At The Races

Course Facts

Founded Current site opened 1924; racing in the area dates to the early 1800s
Ownership Jockey Club Racecourses, one of 15 tracks in the group — not Arena Racing Company
Local identity Lincolnshire’s only racecourse

The Circuit

Shape Right-handed, tight, roughly rectangular, ~1¼ miles, mild undulation
Fences Around 8 per circuit including a water jump, though exact counts vary by source
Quirk The turn into the home straight is slightly downhill and the trickiest part of the track

Notable Races

The Racing Calendar

Listed

Summer Plate

Run over ~2m5½f, held in Third Saturday in July. Market Rasen’s richest race. AP McCoy rode his record-breaking 4,192nd domestic winner in this race in 2014, aboard It’s A Gimme, surpassing Martin Pipe’s training-era record of 4,191.

Listed

Summer Hurdle

Run over ~2m1f, held in Third Saturday in July. Run on the same big summer fixture as the Summer Plate, both regarded as stepping stones toward bigger festival targets later in the season.

Pace Bias

Running Style Bias

Market Rasen carries a genuine reputation for rewarding prominent, front-running tactics, driven by its sharp bends and tricky downhill turn into the home straight. The clearest quantified evidence comes from 3m-plus handicap chases specifically, where prominent runners and leaders have provided 55% of winners and 53.8% of placed horses from just 47.1% of runners — a real edge. No course-wide A/E index or comprehensive win-rate table has been published beyond this specific race type, and the data’s own source cautions against treating pace bias as a sole selection factor, particularly in small fields.

Run Style Bias — 3m+ Handicap Chases

▲ Prominent/Front-runners

55% of winners from just 47.1% of runners

─ Held-up

Under-represented relative to runner share

Statistics · Since 2010

Top Trainers & Jockeys

Trainer	Runs	Wins	Win%	Places	Place%	A/E	P/L
1 Skelton, Daniel	476	105	22.06%	223	46.85%	0.88	-87.95
2 Murphy, Olly	379	84	22.16%	169	44.59%	0.94	-60.26
3 O’Neill, Jonjo and AJ	527	76	14.42%	180	34.16%	0.84	-133.80
4 O’Brien, Fergal	387	75	19.38%	170	43.93%	0.98	-6.98
5 Henderson, N J	207	59	28.50%	96	46.38%	0.98	-8.27
6 Bowen, Peter / Michael	284	56	19.72%	109	38.38%	1.19	+29.48
7 Longsdon, C E	281	47	16.73%	104	37.01%	0.88	-103.12
8 Newland, Dr R D P	233	46	19.74%	97	41.63%	0.95	-16.57
9 Ellison, B	298	44	14.77%	101	33.89%	0.98	-9.92
10 Twiston-Davies, N A	217	41	18.89%	77	35.48%	0.97	-22.75
11 Hammond, Micky	294	38	12.93%	80	27.21%	1.06	+16.64
12 King, A	278	38	13.67%	106	38.13%	0.69	-92.67
13 Jefferson, J M	178	31	17.42%	64	35.96%	1.15	+39.03
14 McCain Jnr, D	308	30	9.74%	91	29.55%	0.59	-109.52
15 Smith, Mrs S J	286	30	10.49%	85	29.72%	0.71	-36.50
16 Pipe, D E	165	28	16.97%	72	43.64%	0.87	-28.94
17 Vaughan, Tim	236	26	11.02%	63	26.69%	0.72	-108.13
18 Kirby, P A	223	24	10.76%	68	30.49%	0.88	-32.37
19 Hales, A M	213	24	11.27%	78	36.62%	0.81	-64.27
20 Williams, Ian	162	24	14.81%	65	40.12%	0.82	-49.88

Market Rasen NH, since 2010. Daniel Skelton leads the page on volume (105 wins from 476, 22.1% SR, A/E 0.88), though the market prices that in. The real value signals are J M Jefferson (A/E 1.15, +£39.03) and Bowen, Peter / Michael (A/E 1.19, +£29.48). Oppose the over-bet D McCain Jnr (A/E 0.59), A King (A/E 0.69) and Mrs S J Smith (A/E 0.71).

Jockey	Runs	Wins	Win%	Places	Place%	A/E	P/L
1 Skelton, Harry	358	85	23.74%	183	51.12%	0.85	-60.56
2 Hughes, Brian	609	83	13.63%	194	31.86%	0.87	-138.40
3 Bowen, Sean P	337	77	22.85%	134	39.76%	1.02	-28.85
4 Twiston-Davies, Sam	318	72	22.64%	135	42.45%	1.07	-6.62
5 Coleman, A	320	67	20.94%	136	42.50%	0.99	-2.56
6 Johnson, Richard	330	65	19.70%	140	42.42%	0.85	-69.36
7 McCoy, A P	227	57	25.11%	108	47.58%	0.87	-47.24
8 Brennan, P J	260	50	19.23%	112	43.08%	0.98	-8.19
9 Scudamore, Tom	244	38	15.57%	87	35.66%	0.95	+5.96
10 Sheehan, Gavin	220	37	16.82%	97	44.09%	0.94	-48.61
11 Fehily, Noel	140	34	24.29%	59	42.14%	1.02	-16.80
12 Brooke, Henry	269	33	12.27%	75	27.88%	1.00	-94.62
13 O’Brien, T J	182	29	15.93%	66	36.26%	1.00	-18.81
14 Bowen, James C	153	29	18.95%	64	41.83%	1.13	+7.63
15 Woods, K K	251	28	11.16%	89	35.46%	0.80	-83.01
16 Cook, Danny	162	26	16.05%	61	37.65%	1.06	-36.48
17 Quinlan, Sean	194	25	12.89%	61	31.44%	0.96	-47.37
18 Bass, David	146	25	17.12%	48	32.88%	0.98	-33.08
19 Burke, Jonathan	136	25	18.38%	54	39.71%	1.02	-7.44
20 Boinville, Nico	111	25	22.52%	44	39.64%	0.93	-17.22

Market Rasen NH, since 2010. Harry Skelton leads the riders on volume (85 wins from 358, 23.7% SR, A/E 0.85), though the market prices that in. Oppose the over-bet K K Woods (A/E 0.80).

Sire Statistics · Since 2010

Top Sires

Sire	Runs	Wins	Win%	Places	Place%	A/E	P/L
1 Presenting	355	57	16.06%	118	33.24%	0.97	-96.99
2 Kayf Tara	343	52	15.16%	124	36.15%	0.89	-41.51
3 Flemensfirth (USA)	242	51	21.07%	95	39.26%	1.13	+64.84
4 Westerner	274	48	17.52%	103	37.59%	1.00	-45.52
5 Beneficial	274	45	16.42%	85	31.02%	1.06	-38.18
6 Oscar (IRE)	257	40	15.56%	93	36.19%	0.96	-35.85
7 Milan	277	38	13.72%	96	34.66%	0.84	-88.99
8 Getaway (GER)	257	35	13.62%	84	32.68%	0.84	-94.45
9 King’s Theatre (IRE)	215	33	15.35%	81	37.67%	0.85	-48.72
10 Midnight Legend	237	31	13.08%	81	34.18%	0.80	-61.76
11 Mahler	161	27	16.77%	57	35.40%	1.06	-31.64
12 Shirocco (GER)	158	25	15.82%	60	37.97%	1.17	+16.74
13 Yeats (IRE)	173	23	13.29%	59	34.10%	0.73	-56.26
14 Sulamani (IRE)	130	20	15.38%	47	36.15%	1.07	-19.94
15 Shantou (USA)	121	20	16.53%	41	33.88%	0.94	+8.96
16 Overbury (IRE)	99	20	20.20%	32	32.32%	1.51	+45.27
17 Fame And Glory	105	19	18.10%	37	35.24%	1.08	-3.84
18 Scorpion (IRE)	143	18	12.59%	52	36.36%	0.88	-51.96
19 Stowaway	103	18	17.48%	34	33.01%	1.09	-27.23
20 Cloudings (IRE)	67	17	25.37%	26	38.81%	1.53	+33.38

Market Rasen NH, since 2010. Presenting tops the sire list (57 wins from 355, 16.1% SR, A/E 0.97). The real value signals are Overbury (IRE) (A/E 1.51, +£45.27), Cloudings (IRE) (A/E 1.53, +£33.38) and Shirocco (GER) (A/E 1.17, +£16.74). Oppose the over-bet Yeats (IRE) (A/E 0.73) and Midnight Legend (A/E 0.80).

Insider Knowledge

Betting Angles

📈

The Trainer Value Sits Below Olly Murphy

N G Richards (A/E 1.58) and Stuart Edmunds (A/E 1.20, +23.25) beat the market; D McCain (A/E 0.71) and Alan King (A/E 0.59) send plenty without reward.

🏆

Bowen and Gregory Are the Value Rides

James Bowen (A/E 1.46, +25.23) and Fergus Gregory (A/E 1.83) beat their price, and C J Todd is the biggest pure profit (+48.56); Harry Skelton (A/E 0.80) and Jamie Hamilton (A/E 0.59) do not convert volume.

📉

A Deceptively Long Home Straight

Described by jockey Mick Fitzgerald as “l-o-n-g,” and the downhill turn into it is the track’s trickiest test.

🐎

Shirocco Leads the Sires

Shirocco (GER) (A/E 1.57, +41.36), Flemensfirth (USA) (A/E 1.31) and Malinas (GER) (A/E 1.31) are the value sires; Getaway (GER) (A/E 0.83) and Yeats (IRE) (A/E 0.59) are the fades.

🏇

Olly Murphy and Sean Bowen Are the Names to Follow

The most consistently cited course specialists across independent data sources.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Treating Market Rasen as “Britain’s only year-round jumps track” — several other courses, including Newton Abbot and Cartmel, also race through summer.
Quoting an exact fence count with full confidence — sources genuinely disagree between 7 and 8 fences per circuit.

Common Questions

Market Rasen Racecourse FAQs

Is Market Rasen left-handed or right-handed?

Right-handed, over a tight, roughly rectangular circuit of about 1¼ miles.

Does Market Rasen have any Graded races?

No Grade 1-3 race, but the Summer Plate and Summer Hurdle both hold Listed status.

Who owns Market Rasen Racecourse?

Jockey Club Racecourses, one of 15 tracks in the group — not Arena Racing Company.

Which future stars debuted at Market Rasen?

Altior won his bumper debut here before a world-record unbeaten streak, and Tiger Roll’s racecourse debut came here before he went on to win two Grand Nationals.

Explore

Other Jumps Tracks

Southwell

Left-handed, honest jumps track, dual-code with its famous all-weather oval.

Newcastle

Left-handed, uphill finish, another Jockey Club-owned northern track.

Huntingdon

Right-handed, Jockey Club-owned, home of the Peterborough Chase.

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Market RasenNational Hunt