Clonmel Racecourse: The Complete Guide

The Track

Clonmel is a right-handed turf oval of about 1¼ miles, roughly 10 furlongs to a circuit, and it is regarded as a demanding, undulating National Hunt course. The shape of the circuit is what defines it. The first part runs uphill, followed by a long downhill run to the home straight, which measures a little over two furlongs, and then the ground climbs again to give a stiff uphill finish. That closing rise is the signature feature: horses that have done too much early in the race are made to pay for it on the run to the line. Viewing across the enclosures is exceptional, helped by the 160-acre wooded setting in the Suir Valley.

On the chase course there are seven fences to a circuit on the outer track, six on the inner. There is a long run after the third-last, two fences in the home straight and a run-in of around 150 yards. The hurdle course has six flights per circuit. The second-last fence, which is met on the downhill run, is notably tricky and catches out tiring horses. For how these obstacles sit around the circuit, see The Course Map.

On pace and riding style, former jockey Charlie Swan describes Clonmel as a tricky, front-runners' track that produces course specialists. It is hard to come from off the pace unless the tempo is strong, and horses need to be given a breather up the far-side hill. On the Flat, per Mick Kinane's guide, a low draw helps on quick ground from the 1m2f and 1m4f starts because of the turning nature of the circuit, while on softer ground the stiff finish lets closers come back at those who did too much early. These are described riding characteristics, not a betting system: no draw or pace angle makes betting here profitable over time. More on reading the form is in Form and Betting.

The course races on turf only, with no all-weather surface, and stages 12 meetings a year under both codes.

Confirmed track facts

Feature	Detail
Handedness	Right-handed
Shape	Oval
Circuit length	About 1¼ miles (roughly 10 furlongs)
Surface	Turf (no all-weather)
Home straight	A little over 2 furlongs
Gradient	Uphill first, long downhill, then stiff uphill finish
Chase fences per circuit	7 (outer track); 6 (inner)
Hurdle flights per circuit	6
Run-in	About 150 yards
Pace bias	Front-runners' track; hard to win from off the pace
Flat draw	Low draw helps on quick ground (1m2f, 1m4f starts)
Codes	Dual (National Hunt and Flat)

Course map and layout

Clonmel sits on a 160-acre site of mature trees and shrubs in the Suir Valley, on the Clonmel bypass at Powerstown Park. The racing surface is a right-handed turf oval of about 1¼ miles, and the enclosures look across the centre of that circuit, so from all points of the ground the viewing is exceptional. The layout is compact enough to follow a race the whole way round.

The action funnels into a home straight of a little over two furlongs, where the ground rises to a stiff uphill finish. On the chase course the last two fences sit in that home straight, ahead of a run-in of around 150 yards to the line, so the winning post and grandstand end share the same climbing stretch.

For the full circuit shape and gradients, see the track; for where spectators stand, see enclosures and stands.

The Races

Clonmel is a year-round dual-code track, but its calendar is anchored by three pattern and Listed races. The graded action all falls to the jumpers, led by a Grade 2 chase that has drawn some of the finest staying and two-mile talent in Irish racing.

Feature races at a glance

Race	Code / grade	Distance	Month	Prize fund	First run
Clonmel Oil Chase	NH, Grade 2	about 2m4f	November	€60,000 (2025)	1992
TA Morris Memorial Mares Chase	NH, Listed	about 2m4f	November	€16,226 to winner (2025)	2004
Powerstown / Mercedes-Benz Novice Hurdle	NH, Grade 3	3m	February	n/a	2003

Clonmel Oil Chase

The Clonmel Oil Chase is the flagship, a Grade 2 chase over about 2m4f for horses aged four or five and older, run in November and worth €60,000 in 2025. It began life in 1992 over 3m in December as the Morris Oil Chase, was cut to 2m4f and moved to November in 1994, earned Grade 3 status in 1995 and promotion to Grade 2 in 1996, and has carried its present title since 2003. Sponsor Clonmel Oil Company, led by Sean Connolly, has backed the race for over two decades.

The roll of honour reads like a roster of Irish jumping royalty. Dorans Pride is the race's defining name, winning four years running from 1997 to 2000. Cheltenham Gold Cup heroes Imperial Call (1995) and War Of Attrition (2005) feature, as do Champion Chase winners Edredon Bleu (2003) and Sizing Europe, the latter scoring at 1/7 in 2012. Beef Or Salmon took the 2002 renewal. In the modern era Willie Mullins has been dominant, saddling ten winners from 2013 onwards, among them Champagne Fever, Kemboy, Douvan (2019), Allaho (2023), Saint Sam (2024) and Il Etait Temps (2025). Paul Townend is the leading jockey with seven wins.

TA Morris Memorial Mares Chase

Run on the same November card, the TA Morris Memorial Mares Chase is a Listed steeplechase for mares over the same course and distance as the Oil Chase. First staged in 2004, when Nolans Pride won, it was briefly graded before returning to Listed status in 2017. Dual winners include Blazing Tempo and Shattered Love, with Vroum Vroum Mag, Allegorie De Vassy and Spindleberry (2025, worth €16,226 to the winner) also on the roll. Willie Mullins is a routine presence here too.

Powerstown / Mercedes-Benz Novice Hurdle

The winter programme's other graded contest comes in February. The Powerstown, latterly Mercedes-Benz, Novice Hurdle is a Grade 3 over 3m, first run in 2003, made Listed in 2008 and promoted to Grade 3 in 2013. It is regarded as an Albert Bartlett trial for Cheltenham, and Willie Mullins trained four consecutive winners from 2013 to 2016.

For how these races fit the wider fixture list, see Festivals; for the trainer and jockey trends behind them, see Form and betting.

Records and stats

Clonmel does not publish certified all-time standard times by distance, and marquee-race track records and biggest winning margins are not centrally recorded either. The most authoritative reference to hand is the At The Races "Clonmel Top Times" table, a rolling five-year snapshot rather than a lifetime record. It lists recent bests such as Saint Sam's 5m 7s over 2m 4f 171y (7 November 2024) and Franciscan Rock's 6m 9s over 3m (3 December 2024). For the feature Clonmel Oil Chase over about 2m4f, an OLBG review of 20 renewals gives the fastest recent winning time as Arvika Ligeonniere's 4:54.80 (2013) and the slowest as Allaho's 6:05.90 (2023). Treat all of these as recent-form markers, not official records.

The leading connections are far clearer. Willie Mullins is the dominant trainer at the meeting, with 10 Oil Chase wins, all since 2013, and an At The Races three-year sample showing an 11-from-19 chase strike rate here. Paul Townend leads the jockeys with 7 Oil Chase victories, and Keith Donoghue also posts a high chase strike rate at the track. As a horse, Dorans Pride holds the defining record: four consecutive Oil Chases from 1997 to 2000. These are historical results only and no reliance on favourites or any staking system is profitable over time; see form and betting for the angles.

Attendance is the biggest gap. Single-day and festival racing crowds, comfortable capacity and annual footfall are all unpublished. The one firm figure is non-racing: the Irish Coursing Club reports about 30,000 across the three-day February National Coursing Meeting.

History

Clonmel Racecourse was established in 1856 at Powerstown Park, in the wooded parkland of the Suir Valley on the edge of the Co. Tipperary town. Racing has now run at the venue for more than 150 years, making it one of Ireland's longer-established provincial tracks and the only one of County Tipperary's three racecourses to stage fixtures year round. The trading entity is Powerstown Park Ltd, and the course still carries the Powerstown Park name alongside its more familiar Clonmel title.

The modern course keeps its historic setting, a 160-acre stretch of mature trees and shrubs, while adding contemporary raceday facilities. Beyond the 1856 founding, a dated redevelopment history, together with the people and financing behind the early course, was not found in authoritative sources, so those details are not asserted here.

Much of the venue's story since the 1990s has been written by its flagship National Hunt race. The feature chase was first run in 1992 over three miles in December as the Morris Oil Chase. It was cut to about two and a half miles and moved to November in 1994, awarded Grade 3 status in 1995 and promoted to Grade 2 in 1996. From 2003 it has run under its present title, the Clonmel Oil Chase, sponsored by the Clonmel Oil Company. That race gave the course its defining association when Dorans Pride won it four years in a row from 1997 to 2000, and it has since drawn a roll of honour laced with Gold Cup and Champion Chase names.

Clonmel's identity has always reached beyond the racecard. The Irish Coursing Club's National Meeting has long been staged in the centre of the track each February, one of the town's biggest annual gatherings. For the racing that built the place, see the-races; for the horses who shaped its reputation, see legends.

Legends of Clonmel

For all that Clonmel is a provincial Tipperary track, its feature race has drawn a remarkable cast of champions. The horse most bound up with the place is Dorans Pride, trained by Michael Hourigan, who won the Clonmel Oil Chase four years running from 1997 to 2000. No other name is stitched so tightly into the roll of honour.

The Oil Chase reads like a who's who of the top staying and two-and-a-half-mile chasers. Imperial Call took it in 1995 before landing the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and War Of Attrition followed the same path, winning here in 2005 and the Gold Cup in 2006. Sizing Europe, a future Champion Chase winner, obliged at odds of 1/7 in 2012 for Henry de Bromhead. Later runnings fell to the household names of the modern era, Douvan in 2019 and Allaho in 2023, both from the Willie Mullins yard.

One horse arrived at Clonmel long before the world knew him: Beef Or Salmon, who began his career winning a bumper here by 15 lengths in November 2001 and returned to take the Oil Chase itself in 2002. Even Tiger Roll passed through, running in the 2017 renewal won by Alpha Des Obeaux.

The people loom just as large. Willie Mullins has taken the Oil Chase ten times, with Paul Townend riding seven winners, a modern dominance covered in more detail in The Races. Off the track, Clonmel Oil and Sean Connolly have backed the flagship chase for over two decades, manager DJ Histon has run Powerstown Park for many years, and Lorcan Wyer, himself a top National Hunt jockey, served as Clerk of the Course from 2003 to 2025. For the fixtures that showcase them, see Festivals.

Festivals and signature meetings

Clonmel stages 12 meetings a year under both codes, the only County Tipperary track racing year-round. Its calendar has no single multi-day racing festival to rival the big meetings elsewhere, but it does have one unmistakable flagship day, plus a scattering of regular fixtures that give the season its shape.

Clonmel Oil Chase Day (November)

The feature meeting of the year is built around the Clonmel Oil Chase, the course's Grade 2 chase over about 2m4f. In 2025 the day fell on Thursday 6 November; in 2024 it was Thursday 7 November. The seven-race card in 2025 ran as follows:

Off-time	Race
12.35pm	INH Stallion Owners EBF Maiden Hurdle
1.10pm	Connollys Red Mills Irish EBF Auction Maiden Hurdle
1.45pm	Clonmel Oil Service Station Handicap Hurdle
2.20pm	TA Morris Memorial Irish EBF Mares Steeplechase (Listed)
2.55pm	Clonmel Oil Steeplechase (Grade 2), 60,000 euro
3.30pm	Prior Park Service Station Clonmel Handicap Steeplechase
4.05pm	racingtv.com Free Trial Flat Race

The Oil Chase itself, off at 2.55pm in 2025, headlines the card and carried a prize fund of 60,000 euro. The supporting Listed TA Morris Memorial Mares Chase, run over the same trip, adds a second black-type contest to the afternoon. The meeting is covered by Racing TV and has also been carried on ITV4, first in 2020, widening its free-to-air reach. For the race itself, its roll of honour and its form angles, see the-races and form-and-betting.

Other fixtures through the year

The rest of the calendar is spread across the seasons rather than concentrated into a festival:

• January brings the Munster Hurdle, the Tipperary Handicap Hurdle and the Jossesstown Handicap Chase.
• February hosts the Grade 3 Mercedes-Benz (Powerstown) Novice Hurdle, a 3m contest regarded as an Albert Bartlett trial. The same month, in the centre of the track rather than on it, the Irish Coursing Club stages its National Meeting of hare coursing, which the Irish Examiner reported drew about 30,000 people across three days, the biggest crowd draw associated with the venue.
• Early June features a Ladies' Day, which encourages formal wear and fashion in line with Irish provincial practice.
• Summer brings well-attended evening meetings.

For the crowds and mood on these days, see atmosphere-and-culture.

Form and betting angles

The market usually wins and favourites lose money to starting price over time. That is the honest starting point for any track, Clonmel included. Our sample of 230 races here (2,616 runners, from October 2023 to June 2026) shows the favourite returning a level-stakes ROI of plus 3.95% to SP, with a 41.3% strike rate, but that figure is not a green light. The 95% confidence interval runs from minus 13.66% to plus 21.87%, so it straddles zero, and a small per-course sample like this is noisy. Treat a range that crosses zero as no signal, not as evidence that backing favourites pays.

Clonmel is a right-handed, undulating jumps course, and the track section explains why it rewards a certain type. Former jockey Charlie Swan calls it a front-runners' track that produces course specialists: it is hard to win from off the pace unless the tempo is strong. On the Flat, a low draw is said to help on quick ground because of the turning nature. These are riding characteristics, not tips.

The card is jumps-dominated. Of the 230 races, 144 were hurdles, 57 chases and only 29 on the Flat. Fields average 11.4 runners (median 12, ranging from 3 to 18), and the going is often testing, with heavy (27.4%) and good (22.6%) the two most common descriptions.

Metric	Value
Sample window	Oct 2023 to Jun 2026
Races / runners	230 / 2,616
Favourite SP ROI	+3.95% (95% CI -13.66% to +21.87%)
Favourite strike rate	41.3%
Average field size	11.4 (median 12, range 3 to 18)
Most common going	Heavy 27.4%, Good 22.6%, Soft 17.8%
Race mix	144 hurdle, 57 chase, 29 Flat
Draw bias	n/a (no measurable edge)

Historically Willie Mullins is exceptionally strong in chases here, with an At The Races sample showing an 11-from-19 chase record, and Paul Townend and Keith Donoghue post high chase strike rates. See the festivals section for the Oil Chase, where nine of the last ten winners were 4/1 or shorter. None of this is a system, and none of it makes betting profitable.

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Visiting Clonmel Racecourse

Clonmel Racecourse, also known as Powerstown Park, sits at Davis Road, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, Eircode E91 EP20, on the Clonmel bypass about 2km from the town centre. It is a year-round dual-code turf track that stages 12 meetings across the National Hunt and Flat seasons, so there is racing in most months rather than a single short festival window.

Badges and tickets are sold through the course website at clonmelraces.ie, using the Buy Badge and Buy Tickets links; for a fuller breakdown of the enclosures see Enclosures and stands. Catering on raceday is run by Masterchefs Hospitality, with a downloadable hospitality flyer and a summer BBQ package promoted alongside venue hire.

There is no strict dress code for ordinary racedays, though the early-June Ladies' Day encourages formal wear, as covered in What to wear. The course carries an Accessibility Options page on its website, and visitors needing specific provisions should consult it directly.

Detailed transport, parking, admission price bands and named package prices were not published in an accessible source at the time of research, so plan ahead via the official site and the Getting there section.

Getting There

Clonmel Racecourse, also known as Powerstown Park, sits on the Clonmel bypass at Davis Road, roughly 2km (about two miles) from the town centre in Co. Tipperary. The Eircode is E91 EP20, and the course lies in the Powerstown area within its 160-acre wooded setting in the Suir Valley. Coordinates are 52.364352 degrees north, 7.68072 degrees west, which drop most sat-navs at the entrance.

By road, the course is reached from across the wider Tipperary and Waterford region, with the bypass giving quick access without threading through Clonmel town itself. For raceday queries the course office can be reached on (052) 6188508, or (052) 6121605 on race days.

Beyond the road approach, the dossier does not carry verified detail on the nearest rail station and its distance, scheduled bus or coach services to the course, or on-site car parking capacity and cost. Rather than guess at those specifics, we would point you to the official site, clonmelraces.ie, and to Clonmel town's public transport listings to confirm train and bus options before you travel. If you are driving, the bypass location and the E91 EP20 Eircode are the two things worth loading into your sat-nav in advance.

For where to base yourself around a visit, including hotels within a short drive and local attractions, see the Nearby section. For gate times, badges and general raceday planning, see Visiting.

Enclosures and stands

Clonmel is a compact provincial course, and the practical thing to know is that it does not run the tiered, multi-enclosure system you find at the big festival tracks. Badges and tickets are sold through the official course website, clonmelraces.ie, using its Buy Badge and Buy Tickets links, so it is worth booking or checking prices there before you travel.

The stand-out feature is the viewing. Clonmel sits in a 160-acre wooded setting in the Suir Valley, and the course rates the sightlines from all points of the enclosure as exceptional. Because the track is a tight right-handed oval of about a mile and a quarter, with the action climbing away, running downhill and then finishing up a stiff rise to the line, you can follow a race the whole way round from a single spot rather than losing the field behind a distant back straight. For more on how that undulating shape rides, see the track.

On admission prices and hospitality, honesty matters more than filling the page. At the time of research the course did not publish named enclosure titles, admission price bands or specific hospitality package prices in an accessible form, so any figure quoted here would be a guess rather than a fact. Treat prices as indicative and confirm the current raceday rate on the website. Masterchefs Hospitality runs the catering and there is a downloadable hospitality flyer, which is the route to any premium or reserved package. For what is on offer once you are inside, see food, bars and hospitality.

Food, bars and hospitality

Raceday catering at Clonmel is provided by Masterchefs Hospitality, which handles food and entertainment across the fixtures. The course itself promotes food and beverage, venue hire and a summer BBQ package, and a downloadable hospitality flyer is offered alongside the badges and tickets sold through clonmelraces.ie.

Beyond the Masterchefs arrangement, individual bars and food outlets are not itemised in a way we can confirm, so we have not listed named counters or set menu prices here. The bigger occasions are the natural focus for hospitality: the flagship Clonmel Oil Chase card in November, sponsored by Clonmel Oil Company and treated by its backers as a family and customer day, and the early-June Ladies' Day, which leans into a more formal, social atmosphere. Summer evening meetings are well attended and suit the BBQ package.

For the wider layout and where hospitality sits relative to the public areas, see enclosures and stands; for booking a package or a table, tickets and hospitality are arranged through the course website, covered under visiting. What to pack for a smart day out is covered in what to wear.

What to Wear

Clonmel keeps things relaxed. There is no strict dress code for ordinary racedays at Powerstown Park, so smart-casual clothing is perfectly acceptable and you should dress mainly for the weather and the ground underfoot. As a turf course set across 160 acres of wooded parkland in the Suir Valley, the going can be soft and the walkways can get muddy in the winter jumps season, so sturdy footwear and a warm, waterproof layer make sense for the November and February fixtures. For a full guide to the enclosures and viewing areas, see enclosures and stands.

The one date that calls for a bit more effort is the early-June Ladies' Day, which encourages formal wear and fashion in the tradition of Irish provincial racing. If you are heading to that meeting, expect racegoers to dress up, and the summer evening fixtures generally have a smarter, more social feel than a routine winter card. For more on the calendar, see festivals.

Capacity and venue hire

Clonmel does not publish an official crowd capacity, and no authoritative single-day or festival racing attendance figure exists for Powerstown Park. What is documented is the scale of the site itself: a 160-acre racecourse of mature trees and shrubs in the Suir Valley, with viewing described as exceptional from all points of the enclosure. Beyond that footprint, any specific comfortable-capacity number would be an estimate the course has not confirmed, so we do not give one here.

The one large, verified crowd figure attached to Powerstown Park is not for racing at all. The Irish Coursing Club's National Meeting, staged in the centre of the track each February, drew a reported 30,000 people across its three days, per the Irish Examiner. That is a hare coursing festival rather than a raceday, so it should not be read as a racing attendance or as a guide to how many the course holds for a fixture. For more on the fixtures themselves, see the festivals section.

On venue hire, the course actively promotes itself as a functions venue. Its own marketing covers food and beverage, venue hire and a summer barbecue package, with Masterchefs Hospitality operating the catering and a downloadable hospitality flyer offered. Named conference and function-room capacities, floor plans and package prices were not published in an accessible source at the time of writing, so anyone planning an event should contact the course directly. The food, bars and hospitality section covers the raceday catering.

Atmosphere and culture

Clonmel Racecourse, known locally as Powerstown Park, sits about 2km from the town centre in a 160-acre wooded parkland setting in the Suir Valley, and much of its character comes from that scenery of mature trees and shrubs. Racing has run here since 1856, giving the course over 150 years of standing as one of Co. Tipperary's fixtures and the only track in the county to race year-round.

The venue's biggest single gathering is not a race meeting at all. The Irish Coursing Club stages its National Meeting, a hare-coursing festival, in the centre of the track each February; the Irish Examiner reported around 30,000 people attending across the three-day event, one of the town's largest annual occasions. Alongside it, the racing calendar gives the course its seasonal rhythm, from winter jumps cards to well-attended summer evening meetings and an early-June Ladies' Day that encourages dressing up.

The flagship Clonmel Oil Chase day in November carries a distinctly local flavour. Clonmel Oil, led by Sean Connolly, has sponsored the feature chase for over two decades and treats the day as a family and customer occasion. Long-serving figures such as manager DJ Histon and former Clerk of the Course Lorcan Wyer, who served from 2003 to 2025, anchor the course's identity as a friendly provincial track. The scenic Suir Valley surroundings, taking in nearby St Patrick's Well and Marlfield, round out its sense of place. See also nearby attractions.

Accessibility

Clonmel Racecourse publishes an Accessibility Options page on its official website, clonmelraces.ie, and this is the source we would point you to before booking. Beyond confirming that the page exists, however, the course does not set out its accessibility provisions in any detail that we could verify. There is no published breakdown of accessible parking bays, step-free routes around the enclosures, accessible viewing areas or accessible toilets, and no stated policy on assistance dogs or on carer and companion admission.

That gap matters more here than at some larger tracks, because Clonmel is a demanding, undulating course set in 160 acres of wooded parkland in the Suir Valley (see the track). Ground that rises and falls can make moving between the parade ring, the stands and the rails harder for anyone with limited mobility, so it is worth planning your route in advance rather than assuming a flat, even site.

Given the lack of published detail, the reliable step is to contact the course directly before you travel. The raceday number is (052) 6121605 and the general office is (052) 6188508. Ask specifically about accessible parking, viewing and facilities for the fixture you are attending. For arrival and parking, see getting there.

Nearby

Powerstown Park sits about 2km from Clonmel town centre, so a raceday pairs easily with a night or two in the town itself. Clonmel offers hotels within a short drive, and the course keeps a "Where to Stay" page on clonmelraces.ie listing local options, which is worth checking when a big fixture such as the Clonmel Oil Chase fills rooms.

The wider Suir Valley gives the area its scenery. The best-known local attractions are the Suir Valley walks along the river, Marlfield Lake bird sanctuary just outside town, St Patrick's Well, and Carey's Castle. These sit within easy reach of the course and make an afternoon at the races part of a longer visit rather than a standalone trip.

For the journey in and parking, and for enclosure and hospitality detail once you arrive, see Getting there and Enclosures and stands.