Courses

Ballysteen

Track info

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County: Limerick

Soil Type: Luvisols - fine, loamy

Fences per circuit: 5

Fences per 3 mile race: 15

Direction: Left-Handed

Course Distance:

Elevation Change (Highest to Lowest Point):

TRACK GUIDE

A one mile round course, Ballysteen has hosted point-to-point racing since 1996 and is something of an undulating course. The runners begin on the run-in and are quickly turning left-handed on a long bend into the back straight. All the while, they have not reached the first fence, which is one of two obstacles along the back.

The uphill climb along the back straight begins before the first fence and intensifies after jumping fence two, all the way to the end of the straight, before levelling out at the top bend which is the highest point of the course. A sharp bend begins the run to fence three on the short straight at the top of the track, before a gentler bend into the home straight.

The runners race downhill in the home straight to fence four, before racing through a gap to number five which also acts as the final fence on the third circuit.

One of the most famous point-to-point graduates of the 21st Century, Faugheen, won his four-year-old maiden at the course on his debut in 2012 for Roger Quinlan and Andrew Slattery.

JOHN BARRY, RIDER

Ballysteen is a sharp left-handed track. I think that you need to be handy there and you also need a horse that will jump and travel for you.

You also need a bit of boot too, as when you turn in from the second-last, it is all downhill.

It is an easy three miles and you need a sharper horse with a few gears.