Navan Racecourse: The Complete Guide

The Track

Navan is a left-handed turf circuit that races under both codes, Flat and National Hunt. It is best pictured as something between a rectangle and a wide oval, with broad sweeping bends and long straight sections, which give it a galloping character. The racecourse's own owners-and-trainers page describes it as "a left-handed oval [of] one mile and four furlongs with a stiff uphill climb to the finish line from the two furlong pole", with a home straight of three and a half furlongs. Some guides and Wikipedia describe the round course as 1½ miles instead; the difference reflects whether the sprint chute is counted and how the figure is rounded. The operator figure of 1m4f round is the most authoritative.

The defining feature is that home straight. At about three and a half furlongs it climbs steadily, and the final two furlongs run uphill, which is why Navan is renowned for a stiff, stamina-sapping finish. A straight sprint course of just under six furlongs (some sources say a flat six) joins the main track at the entrance to the home straight and is used for 5f and 6f Flat races.

Over jumps, the chase course runs around the outside of the hurdles track. The operator page lists nine steeplechase fences, three of them jumped in the home straight on the uphill run, plus seven hurdles on the loop. At least one third-party guide cites eight fences rather than nine, a discrepancy the dossier flags as unconfirmed. The hurdles course on the inner is fractionally sharper, but the wide bends make the practical difference negligible.

On the Flat, draw bias is widely considered negligible, and Navan has a reputation as one of the fairest tracks in Ireland, with no discernible draw advantage at any distance. Analysts note a slight edge to prominent, on-pace runners under both codes, but this is regarded as the sport-wide leaders' bias rather than anything specific to the course. Backing favourites here still loses money to starting price over time, so no running-style read should be treated as a profitable angle.

Going varies sharply by season. A high-end watering system helps Navan avoid firm ground in summer, while a slow-draining subsoil means winter ground can turn very testing, soft to heavy, further emphasising stamina. The November festival is typically run on soft or heavy going. For the graded races run over this ground see The Races; for how it shapes betting angles see Form and Betting.

Track fact	Detail
Handedness	Left-handed
Shape	Between a rectangle and a wide oval, galloping
Codes	Flat and National Hunt, turf
Circuit length	About 1m4f round (operator figure; some sources say 1½ miles)
Home straight	About 3½ furlongs, final 2f uphill
Sprint course	Straight, just under 6f (some sources say 6f); joins at home-straight entrance
Chase fences	9 per operator (one guide says 8, unconfirmed); 3 in the home straight
Hurdles	7 on the loop
Draw bias (Flat)	Negligible at all distances
Pace/running-style bias	Slight edge to on-pace runners, close to sport-wide norm
Going	Watered to avoid firm summer ground; can be soft to heavy in winter
Course-record/standard times	n/a (not published in any authoritative source)

Course map and layout

Navan keeps everything a racegoer needs on the stands side, which makes the site easy to read even on a first visit. The grandstand, parade ring and principal enclosures all sit together here, on the same side as the finish, so you can move between the ring, a bar and a viewing spot without long walks.

The parade ring is the natural anchor. The Arkle Pavilion sits above the weigh room, with a balcony running its length that looks down over the ring and out to the home straight, while the Troytown Bar sits beneath the grandstand a short stroll away. The self-service Kilberry Restaurant is next to the Troytown Bar, keeping the main hospitality cluster tight and central.

The finish lies in front of the stands at the end of the roughly three-and-a-half-furlong home straight, which climbs steadily to the line (see The track for the uphill run-in). One third-party guide describes Navan as the only Irish racecourse where you can see the entire circuit clearly from the stands, an advantage of the wide, open layout. For enclosure detail, see Enclosures and stands.

The races

Navan is best known for a strong National Hunt programme, headed by several Grade 2 and Grade 3 contests, but its Flat calendar carries genuine black-type too. The track is regarded as a Cheltenham and Classic trials venue, and its stiff, uphill finish means the feature races reward stamina above all.

The biggest day of the year is the November Navan Racing Festival (covered in more detail under festivals and meetings), which combines the Fortria and Troytown weekends. Its centrepiece is the Bar One Racing Troytown Handicap Chase, a Grade 3 staying handicap over 3 miles worth €100,000 in total, with €60,000 to the winner. It is one of Ireland's most competitive early-season staying handicaps and a pointer to the Cheltenham and Aintree spring handicaps. Gordon Elliott has dominated it, supplying the winner in six of the ten runnings to 2025, including Coko Beach in 2023. The 2025 renewal went to Answer To Kayf (John Shinnick, Terence O'Brien) at 11/1, by 2¼ lengths from Yeah Man, with 19 runners on heavy going. Historic winners stretch back to Mr What (1957).

The other November features carry deep rolls of honour. The Grade 2 Railway Bar Lismullen Hurdle (2m4f) has been won by the Grade 1 performers Limestone Lad, Apple's Jade and Sire Du Berlais, plus Bob Olinger (2023) and Home By The Lee (2022 and 2024); the 2025 edition went to Colonel Mustard. The Grade 2 Bar One Racing Fortria Chase (2m), named after Tom Dreaper's dual Champion Chase winner, has been landed by Moscow Flyer (2003 and 2004), Big Zeb (three in a row, 2009 to 2011) and, most recently, Found A Fifty (2024 and 2025). The Grade 3 John Lynch Carpets & Flooring Monksfield Novice Hurdle (2m4f) was won in 2025 by Kalypso'chance.

On the Flat, the standout is the Group 3 Vintage Crop Stakes over 1m6f in April, named after Dermot Weld's 1993 Melbourne Cup winner (see legends). First run as a Listed race in 2003 and upgraded to Group 3 in 2014, it has become one of Ireland's leading Ascot Gold Cup trials, with Yeats, Fame And Glory, Leading Light, Kyprios and Emily Dickinson among its winners.

Feature-race roster

Race	Grade	Code	Distance	Month	Sponsor
Troytown Handicap Chase	Grade 3	Chase	3m	November	Bar One Racing
Fortria Chase	Grade 2	Chase	2m	November	Bar One Racing
Lismullen Hurdle	Grade 2	Hurdle	2m4f	November	Railway Bar
Monksfield Novice Hurdle	Grade 3	Hurdle	2m4f	November	John Lynch Carpets & Flooring
Boyne Hurdle	Grade 2	Hurdle	approx 2m6f	February	William Hill
Ten Up Novice Chase	Grade 2	Chase	approx 3m	February	n/a
Vintage Crop Stakes	Group 3	Flat	1m6f	April	Bar One Racing / SBK
Salsabil Stakes	Group 3	Flat	approx 1m2f	Spring	Irish EBF
Committed Stakes	Listed	Flat	6f	n/a	Irish EBF
For Auction Novice Hurdle	Grade 3	Hurdle	n/a	n/a	n/a

February brings the Grade 2 Boyne Hurdle and Grade 2 Ten Up Novice Chase, while the Flat card also stages the Listed Kooyonga and Yeats Stakes. For a fuller picture of how these races run, see form and betting.

Records and stats

Navan keeps a lower profile than the big Irish tracks, and several of the figures racegoers usually look for simply are not published. No authoritative source records the course's all-time record or standard times by distance, and marquee-race track records and biggest winning margins are likewise not held in any verifiable central source. Attendance is the same story: record single-day and festival crowds, typical footfall and a stated comfortable capacity are not published. What is on record is scale, with the racecourse set in 181 acres per Meath County Council, staging in the region of 17 to 18 fixtures a year across most months bar August.

The leading-rider and leading-trainer tables are better documented, though the counts are indicative and shift over time. Over jumps, Davy Russell heads the career jockey list with roughly 62 wins, while Gordon Elliott (about 119 jumps wins) and Willie Mullins (about 109) dominate the trainer standings since 2009. On the Flat, Colin Keane (around 55) and Shane Foley (around 44) lead the recent jockey figures, and Aidan O'Brien tops the trainers with about 92 wins from 402 runners. Elliott's grip on the big day is stark: he supplied the Troytown winner in six of its ten runnings to 2025.

For how these names translate to the betting ring, see form and betting.

History

Horse racing has taken place at the Proudstown Park site, about 3 miles from Navan town centre in County Meath, since 1920, and the venue is still referred to by some as Proudstown Park. The first meeting was held on Friday 16 September 1921. It was run over jumps, although the chase course was not completed until December 1921. Multiple sources credit the founding of the racecourse to the vision of a local farmer and auctioneer, Albert Lowry.

One of the track's defining early moments came in 1962, when the future three-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Arkle won his maiden at Navan, an early sign of the greatness to come from a horse trained by Tom Dreaper in the same county. Arkle's Navan connection remains one of the course's proudest associations, and you can read more about him and the other horses tied to the track in the legends section.

The course has not stood still. The Fortria Chase, one of its feature jumps races, was moved to Fairyhouse in 1991, a period when Navan's future was said to be in the balance, before it later returned to Proudstown Park. Ownership subsequently passed to Horse Racing Ireland, the national governing and commercial body for Irish racing, which owns the course today.

The last major redevelopment was completed in 2017, and Navan is now considered one of the more modern Irish tracks. Its calendar took another step forward in 2023, when the two-day Navan Racing Festival was launched as an inaugural November fixture under then-manager Aidan McGarry, combining the Fortria and Troytown weekends into a single showpiece. That festival, and the other big meetings across the year, are covered in the festivals section.

Legends of Navan

Navan's roll of honour reaches from the local fields to the far side of the world. The greatest name of all is Arkle, the finest chaser Ireland has produced, who won his maiden here in 1962 before going on to land three Cheltenham Gold Cups. Trained by Tom Dreaper in County Meath, his tie to the course is genuinely local, and the Arkle Pavilion above the weigh room carries his name.

Vintage Crop, the Dermot Weld-trained chestnut gelding, is honoured by the course's leading Flat race. In 1993 he became the first northern-hemisphere-trained horse to win the Melbourne Cup, ridden by Mick Kinane and owned by Michael Smurfit, having already taken the Irish St Leger twice and the Cesarewitch. His great days came at Flemington, the Curragh and Newmarket rather than Navan, but the Vintage Crop Stakes keeps his memory at Proudstown (see the races).

Troytown gives his name to the November feature and to a bar at the course. Bred near Navan by his owner Major Thomas Collins-Gerrard of Wilkinstown, he won the 1920 Aintree Grand National by twelve lengths under amateur Jack Anthony and the 1919 Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris, one of only two horses to take both. His career was cut short by a fatal fall at Auteuil in 1920.

Among the modern greats, Limestone Lad, the tough front-running stayer trained by James Bowe, sits on the Lismullen Hurdle roll of honour. The Monksfield Novice Hurdle commemorates the dual Champion Hurdle winner Monksfield.

Of the horsemen, Gordon Elliott stands out: a self-described Meath man from nearby Longwood who has won the Troytown six times in ten years. Weld, Noel Meade, Davy Russell and Jack Kennedy are all woven into the course's story (see history).

Festivals and signature meetings

Navan's calendar is anchored by two standout dates: a two-day jumps festival in November and a spring Flat trials card in April. Between them they carry most of the track's black-type action, drawing on the stamina test of its stiff, uphill finish.

The Navan Racing Festival (November)

The Navan Racing Festival was inaugurated in 2023 under then-manager Aidan McGarry, combining the Fortria and Troytown weekends into a single two-day fixture. In 2025 it ran on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 November.

The Saturday card is headlined by two Grade 2 features. In 2025 the Railway Bar Lismullen Hurdle (2m4f) was scheduled for 1.58pm and the Bar One Racing Fortria Chase (2m) for 2.33pm. Found A Fifty, ridden by Jack Kennedy for Gordon Elliott, retained the Fortria, while Colonel Mustard took the Lismullen.

The Sunday card carries two Grade 3 features and the weekend's biggest prize. The John Lynch Carpets & Flooring Monksfield Novice Hurdle (2m4f) went to Kalypso'chance, and the day builds to the Bar One Racing Troytown Handicap Chase (3m), worth €100,000 in total. In 2025 the Troytown was won by Answer To Kayf, ridden by John Shinnick and trained by Terence O'Brien, at 11/1, beating Yeah Man by 2¼ lengths from a field of 19 on heavy going. RTÉ One provided free-to-air coverage of the Sunday card.

There is no strict dress code for the festival, which features live music, choirs and after-parties in Navan town. You can read more about these headline contests in the races.

Spring Flat trials day (April)

Navan's spring highlight is built around the Group 3 Vintage Crop Stakes over 1 mile 6 furlongs, supported by the Group 3 Salsabil Stakes and the Listed Committed Stakes. In 2026 the Bar One Racing Vintage Crop Stakes Raceday was set for Saturday 25 April, with gates from 12.05pm and racing from around 2.05pm.

The Vintage Crop Stakes has developed into one of Ireland's leading Ascot Gold Cup trials, and the card regularly attracts leading Irish stayers making their seasonal return. Recent participants have included Kyprios and Emily Dickinson.

Whichever meeting you attend, the going is a major factor: the November festival is typically run on soft or heavy ground, sharpening the emphasis on stamina, while the watering system helps the April card avoid genuinely firm going. For how the ground and the uphill finish shape results, see form and betting.

Form and betting

The market wins, and favourites lose to starting price (SP) over time. Navan is no exception. Across 375 races from October 2023 to June 2026, backing every favourite to SP at level stakes returned about minus 1.65 per cent, so a notional bank would have drifted slowly down rather than up. That figure sits inside a wide 95 per cent confidence interval (roughly minus 14.8 to plus 12.3 per cent), which crosses zero, so on this sample there is no reliable edge either way. Read it as a caution, not a system: no way of backing favourites here should be assumed profitable.

Favourites won 38.7 per cent of those races, in line with a fair, galloping track where the best horse tends to get its chance. The dossier notes that clear favourites have posted a negative actual-versus-expected figure, meaning they underperformed market expectations, and that handicap favourites have been notably worse.

Draw bias is negligible: low, middle and high stalls won 8.2, 6.9 and 8.4 per cent respectively, close enough to call even. There is a slight edge to prominent, on-pace runners, but this reflects the sport-wide leaders' bias rather than anything specific to Navan. The stiff uphill finish, covered in the track section, places a premium on stamina, and that is sharpened on winter ground: yielding, good, heavy and soft-to-heavy each accounted for roughly 17 to 19 per cent of races, so testing conditions are the norm at the November festival.

Visiting Navan Racecourse

Navan Racecourse sits at Proudstown, about 3 miles (5km) from Navan town centre in County Meath, roughly 48km north-west of Dublin. The main line is +353 (0)46 9021350 and the official website is navanracecourse.ie. Most visitors drive: take the N3 north-west from Dublin, then the R162 Proudstown Road, with the journey typically under an hour. There is ample free parking a short walk from the main entrance, though early arrival is advised on busy days. Note that Navan has no passenger rail service, so rail users change to a bus or taxi at Drogheda. For the full breakdown of road, bus, air and parking, see Getting there.

Admission is straightforward: about €15 for adults and €10 for students, with under-18s admitted free, priced the same online or on the day. Group and family offers are also promoted. There is no strict dress code; the racecourse recommends smart, casual attire and dressing for the weather, as covered in What to wear. A dedicated accessibility page is published at navanracecourse.ie/accessibility; see Accessibility for what is known.

Getting There

Navan Racecourse sits at Proudstown, roughly 3 miles (about 5km) from Navan town centre in County Meath, and around 48km north-west of Dublin. For most visitors the simplest approach is by road, though bus and airport-coach links make the track reachable without a car.

By road

From Dublin, take the N3 north-west, then follow the R162 Proudstown Road out of Navan town to the course. The journey from Dublin is typically under an hour, depending on traffic. The racecourse is well signed from the town, and its position just outside Navan keeps it clear of the busiest town-centre congestion.

By rail

Navan has no passenger rail service, so there is no direct train option. The nearest station is Drogheda, roughly to the east (sources vary on the exact distance, around 24km), from which you will need a bus or taxi to complete the journey to Navan.

By bus and coach

Bus Éireann runs services from Dublin's Busáras hourly, departing from 7.30am on weekdays and 9am on Sundays, stopping in Navan town centre. From the town, a taxi covers the final 3 miles to the track. If you are flying in, Dublin Airport is the nearest airport, and a regular Aircoach service links the airport to Navan town centre.

Parking

Ample free parking is available a short walk from the main entrance. On busy fixtures such as the November Navan Racing Festival, early arrival is advised to secure a convenient spot and to allow time to reach the enclosures.

Once you arrive, see Visiting for tickets and planning, and Enclosures and Stands for where to head from the entrance.

Enclosures and stands

Navan keeps things simple. Rather than the tiered ring-and-enclosure system found at some larger tracks, it runs a single general admission that gives you the run of the grandstand and public areas. The grandstand, parade ring and principal enclosures all sit together on the stands side, and one third-party guide goes as far as to claim Navan is the only racecourse in Ireland from which you can see the entire track clearly. The parade ring sits just below the stands, so the walk from bar to birdcage to viewing steps is short.

Standard adult admission is about €15, with students about €10 and under-18s admitted free (prices are indicative and, per the racecourse, the same whether you book online or pay on the day). For groups of ten or more, a Punters Pack has been offered at about €28 per person, bundling admission with a racecard, a €5 bet voucher and a €10 lunch voucher, and a Family Day ticket has been promoted at €30.

The one clear step up in vantage point is the Arkle Pavilion, set above the weigh room and reserved for annual members, owners and trainers. A balcony runs its length, looking down over the parade ring and out to the home straight and its stiff uphill finish. Below the grandstand sits the Troytown Bar, a short stroll from the ring, so most racegoers spend the day moving between the public stand, the ring rail and the bar.

Dining upgrades such as the balcony-view Bective Restaurant, and the bookable Proudstown, Boyne and O'Sullivan suites, are covered under food, bars and hospitality and capacity and venue hire.

Food, bars and hospitality

Navan keeps its food and drink close to the action, with the main outlets clustered around the grandstand and parade ring. The Troytown Bar and Café is the public hub, a bar beneath the grandstand named after the 1920 Grand National winner bred nearby. Recently refurbished, it has a dance floor, on-screen viewing, Tote betting and live music after weekend meetings. Next to it, the Kilberry Restaurant is a refurbished self-service venue open to all racegoers, serving hot meals with numerous televisions.

For a sit-down occasion, the Bective Restaurant offers silver-service lunch or dinner with balcony views over the track, and is the most popular choice for smaller groups. A three-course meal here has been priced at about €62 to €65. The Arkle Pavilion, above the weigh room, is reserved for annual members, owners and trainers, with a balcony over the parade ring.

Larger bookings are handled by the Proudstown, Boyne and O'Sullivan function rooms, which take groups from 10 to 220 guests with catering from finger food to fine dining. There is also a children's area and a coffee shop. For prices and packages see Tickets and enclosures.

What to wear

Navan keeps things easy. The racecourse describes itself as "a relaxed friendly venue" and applies no strict dress code, recommending only "smart, casual attire". There are no hard-and-fast rules, so you will not be turned away for dressing down, and the same relaxed approach holds across the Navan Racing Festival in November.

The racecourse's own advice is to dress for the weather and choose suitable footwear, which is sound counsel here. Winter meetings, including the November festival, are often run on soft or heavy going, and the walk between the parade ring, the stands and the enclosures can be exposed, so warm, weatherproof layers and sturdy shoes are sensible from autumn onwards. Spring and summer cards are gentler, but a jacket is still worth having.

In short, comfort comes before formality at Navan. Smart casual covers you in every enclosure, and there is no requirement for suits, ties or formal dress. For where those layers can head afterwards, see food, bars and hospitality.

Capacity and venue hire

Navan Racecourse does not publish an official crowd capacity, and no record single-day attendance, festival attendance or annual footfall figure could be confirmed in an authoritative source. What is documented is the scale of the site itself: the racecourse sits within 181 acres at Proudstown, per Meath County Council. Any specific "comfortable capacity" number for the enclosures should therefore be treated as unknown rather than estimated here.

For private and corporate hire, the racecourse markets three named suites, the Proudstown, Boyne and O'Sullivan rooms, which are bookable for groups ranging from 10 to 220 guests. These are used for workplace outings, product launches, fundraisers and similar events, with catering options that run from finger food through hot buffet and barbecue to fine dining. The precise banqueting-versus-standing capacity of each individual room, beyond that overall 10 to 220 range, is not published.

Smaller-scale hospitality is handled by the Bective Restaurant, a silver-service venue with balcony views popular for lower guest numbers, while the Arkle Pavilion above the weigh room is reserved for annual members, owners and trainers. For food and dining detail see the food, bars and hospitality section, and for how these spaces sit across the site see enclosures and stands.

Groups can also book without a full room hire: the "Punters Pack", aimed at parties of ten or more, bundles admission, a racecard and betting and lunch vouchers.

Atmosphere and Culture

Navan sits in the heart of Meath, the "Royal County", and the racecourse wears its local roots openly. This is a track built and shaped by horsemen: its stiff, stamina-sapping uphill finish is prized as a true test of fitness, and the place carries the unfussy, friendly character of a working provincial course rather than a fashion parade. The racecourse describes itself as a relaxed venue with no strict dress code, and the mood on a raceday reflects that.

The local racing lineage runs deep. Troytown, the horse behind the November feature, was bred near Navan, and his name lives on in the town's Troytown Heights housing estate as well as the racecourse bar. Arkle, trained by Tom Dreaper in County Meath, won his maiden here in 1962. Modern trainers keep the connection alive too: Gordon Elliott, based nearby at Longwood, calls himself a "Meath man through and through" and prizes racing on his doorstep.

The town and the track are woven together most tightly at the Navan Racing Festival each November, when choirs and live music play on festival days and the after-parties spill into Navan's pubs and hotels, among them The Central, The Royal Meath, Ryans Bar and The Round O. Even on ordinary weekends the Troytown Bar hosts live music after racing, keeping the racecourse firmly on the town's social calendar. See Nearby for the wider Boyne Valley.

Accessibility

Navan Racecourse maintains a dedicated accessibility page on its official website (navanracecourse.ie/accessibility), so disabled racegoers and their companions have a first point of contact for planning a visit.

Beyond the existence of that page, the specific provisions are not published in a form we could verify at the time of writing. The detail that a first-time visitor with access needs would want to confirm in advance is not laid out publicly, including accessible parking near the entrance, step-free routes to the stands and parade ring, accessible viewing positions, lifts, accessible toilets, the assistance-dog policy and any carer or companion ticket concession. We have chosen not to state any of these as fact rather than guess at them.

If access provision matters for your day, the safest step is to contact the racecourse directly before travelling, on +353 (0)46 9021350, and confirm exactly what is available for the enclosure and fixture you are attending. The venue markets itself as a relaxed, friendly course and completed a major redevelopment in 2017, which tends to favour more modern access standards, but that is context rather than a confirmed provision.

For arrival and parking see Getting there, and for admission and enclosures see Visiting.

Nearby: where to stay and the local area

Accommodation is concentrated in Navan town, which offers hotels and B&Bs to suit varying budgets, with further options in the surrounding Meath towns of Slane, Kells, Trim, Gormanston and Dunboyne. On festival days the racecourse's after-parties spill into Navan's own bars and hotels, among them The Central, The Royal Meath, Ryans Bar and The Round O.

The racecourse sits in the heart of the Boyne Valley, one of Ireland's richest stretches of heritage. Newgrange, the Neolithic passage tomb at Brú na Bóinne, and the Hill of Tara, the ancient seat of the High Kings, are both within easy reach, as is the village of Slane. Dublin, roughly 48km to the south-east, is close enough for a day trip or a base.

For how to reach the track from these towns and the capital, see getting there. For admission and on-course dining once you arrive, see visiting.