THE CURRAGH RACECOURSE
The Curragh Racecourse is the main racecourse in Ireland. It is situated on the Curragh plain near Newbridge, County Kildare, Ireland. In the Leinster province. The Irish 1,000 Guineas, Irish 2,000 Guineas, Irish Derby, Irish Oaks and the Irish St. Leger are all run at the Curragh.
Key Characteristics
The Curragh is quite an undulating course, but its long straight and large width very much make it a galloping course. Their is a straight course of 7 Furlongs which acts as a chute to the main course. The main course is a right handed horseshoe with a run-in of 3 furlongs, those last 3 furlongs are all slightly uphill making it quite a test for horses.
In general the round courses are very fair, but the Derby track is quite different to the Plate track, as there is an awful lot of turning on the Derby track and a low draw is definitely a help.
On the sprint track, when they race up against the stand side, a high draw is always favoured to one extent or another no matter what the ground is like, as there is a gradual camber from the stand side down to the far side, so the stand side is always that bit drier.
Course Map
Draw Bias
5 Furlongs
The first thing to say is that there are very few 5 furlong handicaps at the Curragh, and therefore the above graph is based on a very limited amount of data. However what data does exist suggests that low drawn runners are quite significantly favoured over 5 furlongs at the Curragh.
6 Furlongs
There are a lot more 6 furlong handicap races than over 5 furlongs and therefore a lot of data to go on. It appears that the draw is actually pretty fair with horses being able to win from being drawn pretty much anywhere.
7 Furlongs
One Mile
The mile course at the Curragh is run round a right handed horseshoe, so if anything you would expect low drawn horses to be favoured. In actual fact their does not appear to be any draw bias whatsoever, which is probably explained by the wide course and the long straight.
Key
The charts above indicate the percentage of races which were won from each stall number.
