Fairyhouse
FLAT: Fairyhouse Racecourse is a wide, galloping and square-shaped course that is a mile and six furlongs in length and right-handed. The straight is three furlongs long and is slightly uphill. A low draw is an advantage at trips up to a mile.
NATIONAL HUNT: Fairyhouse is a wide, galloping, square right-handed track, a mile and three quarters in extent. There is a steady climb on the side away from the stands before a steady descent in the back straight. The three-furlong home straight is slightly uphill but the track is not a testing one, and favours no particular type of horse. There are two chase courses, one with twelve fences to a circuit while the inner course has eight.
ABOUT: The home of the Irish Grand National, Fairyhouse is located in the parish of Ratoath in County Meath. The first race meet took place there in 1848, with the first ever Irish Grand National steeplechase happening in 1870. The first three Witnness music festivals (which later moved to Punchestown and rebranded as the Oxegen festival) were all held at Fairyhouse, from 2000 to 2003.
The venue of the Irish Grand National as well as the Hatton Grace Winter Festival in December, Fairyhouse is a big track, almost two miles around over fences with 12 in the circuit. Not too stiff a track, very different to Navan, the last mile and a quarter at Fairyhouse is downhill or even. It stages a lot of Flat racing in the summer and also has an inside track which hosts midweek fixtures during the winter. That’s a much tighter track but does serve its purpose and it is a fine racecourse.