Courses

Oldcastle

Track info

Top Riders Course stats Winning Favourites

County: Meath

Soil Type: Brown Earth - fine, loamy

Fences per circuit: 5

Fences per 3 mile race: 14

Direction: Left-Handed

Course Distance: 1.11m

Elevation Change (Highest to Lowest Point):

TRACK GUIDE

Oldcastle made its first appearance on the point-to-point fixture list in 1977 and it has been a mainstay of it ever since.

The course itself is a track of two halves. From the winning post to the start, which is located on the entrance to the back straight, the horses race steeply downhill, with no fences located on this portion of the course. Once jumping two fences along the back straight, the field spend much of their time on the turn, with the pace of the race often picking-up notably at this point.

However, from here on in, an arduous uphill climb awaits. The stiffest of the climb is between the third-last and second-last fences, with a further, albeit slightly lesser climb, bringing the field into the home straight.

Horses who may have found themselves outpaced along the back straight, often manage to get themselves back into the race by the final fence, which tends to produce some very exciting finishes.

Multiple Graded winner Our Vic is the undoubted star graduate from Oldcastle, alongside Cheltenham Festival winner Dun Doire, and Ballytrim, who is a previous winner of the Leinster National at Naas.

BARRY O'NEILL

In general Oldcastle is a very fair track. It has a very steep finish and you would imagine that a horse has to stay well around here.

They will often go very quick down the hill into the bottom bend, so there can be a bit of trouble between the fourth last and third-last fences. But if they have gone too quick up front, by the time those horses have reached the second-last fence, they will tend to have fizzled out, which gives you the chance to come back at them.

You have plenty of room from the second-last fence to launch your run from there if you have a good enough horse underneath you.