About Punchestown Racecourse

Punchestown Racecourse is a racecourse which is situated in county Kildare, Ireland, not far away from the town of Naas. This in turn has meant that Punchestown Racecourse is only a short distance away from Naas Racecourse. While this may lead some to believe this means Punchestown Racecourse is competing with Naas Racecourse for business; this couldn’t be any further from the truth. Having two racecourses to close to each other has made it a hotbed for activity and an area trainers are keen to take their horses. Punchestown Racecourse is also only a short distance away from Dublin too meaning it sees plenty of visitors each race day as well!

Punchestown Racecourse offers up a right handed track over a distance of one mile and six furlongs. There is a chase course here at Punchestown Racecourse too which is two miles long. Punchestown Racecourse has a relatively even split between flat, chate, and hurdle racing events. Punchestown Racecourse also offers a more difficult track than most others in Ireland too largely down to the fact it’s an undulating course.

Notable races

There’s no shortage of high prestige races here at Punchestown Racecourse; 21 of them to be exact. While there are some grade two and grade three offered races at Punchestown Racecourse; the majority of the big races on show here are grade one races. This means throughout the year there are plenty of high profile horses in their races. This in turn has lead to large attendances during race days.

The Punchestown Festival is the biggest festival at Punchestown Racecourse. This is a five day festival which takes place during April. During this festival there’s a whopping 11 grade one races which take place. This makes the Punchestown Festival one of the most popular festivals in the Irish calendar year!