Troytown Chase Day at Navan: The Complete Guide

The Troytown Handicap Chase is a Grade 3 handicap steeplechase run over three miles (about 4,800 metres) at Navan. It is open to horses aged four and older, and under its recent conditions a runner must have had at least four starts over fences to qualify, which keeps it to established, battle-hardened chasers rather than raw novices. Being a handicap, the weights are spread to bring the field together, and it regularly draws large, competitive line-ups: nineteen went to post in 2025.

The race is run around Navan's chase circuit, which carries nine fences to a lap, three of them jumped in the home straight on the climb to the line. That closing rise, with the final two furlongs uphill, is what makes three miles here such a searching stayers' test, especially on the soft or heavy ground that November so often brings.

The total fund stands at 100,000 euro under Bar One Racing, split 60,000 euro to the winner, 20,000 euro for second and 10,000 euro for third on the recent racecard. The purse has moved around in recent seasons, reported at 80,000 euro in 2021 and as high as 125,000 euro in 2020, before settling at the 100,000 euro total from 2022 onward. Bar One Racing, the title sponsor, is a Louth-based independent bookmaker led by chief executive Barney O'Hare, employing more than 350 staff across 53 shops in Ireland.

Some trends and preview pages still describe the race by its older Irish designation as a "Grade B" premier handicap. That is the same contest: it is now consistently classified as Grade 3, and the "Grade B" label simply reflects the historic Irish grading of premier handicaps.

Detail	The Troytown Handicap Chase
Grade	Grade 3 handicap chase
Distance	Three miles (about 4,800 m)
Course	Navan, Co. Meath (left-handed)
Month	November
Eligibility	Four-year-olds and up, at least four runs over fences
Total fund	100,000 euro (60,000 euro to the winner)
Sponsor	Bar One Racing (title sponsor since 2022)
Broadcast	RTÉ and Racing TV

The Sunday of the November festival is built around it, with the Troytown going off in mid-afternoon, at 2.30pm in 2025.

The race takes its name from Troytown, a genuine local hero. Foaled in 1913 and bred near Navan at Wilkinstown by his owner, Major Thomas Collins-Gerrard, Troytown won the 1920 Aintree Grand National by twelve lengths at 6/1, ploughing through the fences in heavy rain in front of King George V. He had already taken the 1919 Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris, and he was one of only two horses to win both that race and the Grand National. His career was cut short when he was fatally injured back at Auteuil later in 1920. His name lives on all over the town: the Troytown Bar at the racecourse and the Troytown Heights housing estate in Navan both carry it, as does the chase that heads the November card.

A continuous, verified record of the race's earliest runnings is hard to pin down, and its exact founding year is not firmly established, so the history is best told through what can be confirmed. Isolated older winners survive in the record, among them Greasepaint in 1981 and Sicilian Answer in 1983, and the late 1990s and early 2000s brought Heist for Noel Meade in 1997, Foxchapel King for Mouse Morris in 1999 and Jack High for Ted Walsh in 2004.

The sponsorship has changed hands over the years while the "Troytown" name stayed put. Stanleybet backed it in 2004, Ladbrokes carried the race through roughly the late 2010s to 2021, and Bar One Racing took over as title sponsor from 2022. Its classification tracks a similar path: long listed as a "Grade B" premier handicap under the old Irish system, it now sits consistently at Grade 3.

The modern era belongs largely to one yard. From 2014 onward, Gordon Elliott turned the Troytown into one of his banker targets, and his run of winners reshaped the roll of honour. The 2021 running carried a nice sense of occasion too, staged on Navan's 100th-anniversary raceday and won by Elliott's front-runner Run Wild Fred. Since 2023 the race has anchored the two-day Navan Racing Festival, giving it a bigger stage than the stand-alone Sunday it once occupied.

No part of a handicap tells its story better than the roll of honour, and the Troytown's is a run of tough, well-handicapped stayers, several of whom went on to bigger days.

The dominant name is Gordon Elliott. The Meath trainer has won the race seven times, with Balbriggan (2014), Riverside City (2015), Empire Of Dirt (2016) and Mala Beach (2017) giving him four in a row, before Run Wild Fred (2021), Coko Beach (2023) and Stuzzikini (2024) took him to seven. No modern jockey has matched that kind of grip, though Paul Townend has won it twice, on Beroni in 2009 and The Jam Man in 2020. Lyreen Wonder, trained by Arthur Moore, was the last horse to win back-to-back runnings, completing the double in 2000 and 2001.

A handful of runnings stand out. The Jam Man's 2020 win was a shrewdly plotted eighteen-length demolition under Townend for owner-trainer Ronan McNally, one of the widest margins the race has seen. Run Wild Fred got off the mark over fences at the ninth attempt on Navan's 100th-anniversary raceday in 2021. In 2022 The Big Dog pounced on a last-fence error by topweight Lifetime Ambition, following up a Munster National win and later running fifth in the Aintree Grand National. Stuzzikini's 2024 success came at 20/1, ridden by Gavin Brouder deputising for the sidelined Danny Gilligan, and it was the biggest career win in Ireland for the Kerry jockey, from one of nine Elliott runners in the race. The biggest-priced modern winner is Cootamundra, home at 25/1 for John Berry in 2013.

The table below carries the winners from 2005 to 2025, with starting prices where they are confirmed.

Year	Winner	Jockey	Trainer	SP
2025	Answer To Kayf	John Shinnick	Terence O'Brien	11/1
2024	Stuzzikini	Gavin Brouder	Gordon Elliott	20/1
2023	Coko Beach	Danny Gilligan	Gordon Elliott	20/1
2022	The Big Dog	Keith Donoghue	Peter Fahey	11/1
2021	Run Wild Fred	Davy Russell	Gordon Elliott	4/1 fav
2020	The Jam Man	Paul Townend	Ronan McNally	5/2 fav
2019	Chris's Dream	Robbie Power	Henry de Bromhead	9/2 fav
2018	Tout Est Permis	Sean Flanagan	Noel Meade	9/1
2017	Mala Beach	Davy Russell	Gordon Elliott	12/1
2016	Empire Of Dirt	Bryan Cooper	Gordon Elliott	12/1
2015	Riverside City	Jack Kennedy	Gordon Elliott	8/1
2014	Balbriggan	Kevin Sexton	Gordon Elliott	4/1 fav
2013	Cootamundra	Robbie Moran	John Berry	25/1
2012	Tofino Bay	Davy Russell	Dessie Hughes	8/1
2011	Groody Hill	Andrew Crowe	Christy Roche	10/1
2010	Jack The Bus	Andrew Crowe	Peter Casey	9/1
2009	Beroni	Paul Townend	Willie Mullins	7/1
2008	Notre Pere	A.E. Lynch	Jim Dreaper	6/1
2007	Royal County Star	Robbie Colgan	Tony Martin	10/3 fav
2006	Cane Brake	Barry Geraghty	Tom Taaffe	10/1
2005	Prince Of Tara	n/a	n/a	n/a

The winning trainer's name spread beyond Elliott is a reminder of how open the race is: Willie Mullins, Henry de Bromhead, Noel Meade, Tony Martin, Dessie Hughes and Jim Dreaper all feature. The spread of starting prices, from odds-on favourites who obliged to 20/1 and 25/1 shots who did not, is the clearest sign that this is a genuine puzzle of a handicap.

The Troytown is a big-field staying handicap, and a few features of the track and the record are worth understanding as context. None of them is a way to make the race pay.

Navan is regarded as one of the fairest courses in Ireland, with no meaningful draw bias under either code, so where a horse is drawn is not the factor here that it can be on tighter, more idiosyncratic tracks. What the course does reward is stamina. The stiff, uphill home straight, with the final two furlongs climbing, places a premium on staying power, and on the soft or heavy going that November usually serves up, that is only accentuated. Prominent, on-pace types have a slight edge, but that reflects the sport-wide advantage held by front-runners rather than anything specific to Navan.

The favourite's record here fits the wider truth of the sport. Across the twenty-one runnings from 2005 to 2025, the favourite won five times, and the other sixteen went to bigger prices, out as far as 20/1 and 25/1. That is a race that respects the market some of the time and turns it over just as often.

Angle	What the record shows
Favourites	Won 5 of the 21 runnings from 2005 to 2025; the rest went to bigger prices
Draw	No meaningful draw bias at Navan
Going	Usually soft to heavy in November, which puts a premium on stamina
Field	Large, competitive handicap fields (nineteen ran in 2025)

These are patterns to help you read the race, not a system to beat it. Backing favourites loses money to starting price over time, and analysis of Navan specifically shows favourites returning a negative actual-versus-expected figure, with handicap favourites notably worse: they have won plenty but offered poor value. There is no profitable angle in any of the above, and no horse, price or trend should be treated as a banker. Treat the going, the trip and the form as the things to weigh, and treat any system or favourite as fallible.

If you do have a bet, only ever stake what you can afford to lose, and set your own limits before you start. If gambling is causing you or someone you know harm, free, confidential support is available from GambleAware at gambleaware.org and the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133.

The Troytown no longer stands alone on its Sunday. Since 2023 it has been the centrepiece of the Navan Racing Festival, a two-day fixture run across a Saturday and Sunday in mid-November. In 2025 the festival ran on 15 and 16 November, with the Troytown the feature of the Sunday card.

The weekend is built around four graded races. The Saturday carries two Grade 2 features: the Lismullen Hurdle over about two miles four furlongs, and the Fortria Chase over about two miles. The Sunday pairs the Grade 3 Monksfield Novice Hurdle over two miles four furlongs with the Troytown itself, supported across the meeting by the Grade 3 For Auction Novice Hurdle, beginners' chases and mares' bumpers.

Both of the festival's Grade 2 races have deep rolls of honour. The Fortria Chase, a two-mile championship trial named after the Tom Dreaper-trained dual Champion Chase winner Fortria, has gone to Moscow Flyer, Big Zeb (three in a row from 2009 to 2011), Flemenstar, Captain Guinness and Found A Fifty. The Lismullen Hurdle has been won by the likes of Limestone Lad, Apple's Jade, Sire Du Berlais and Bob Olinger, a list that tells you the class of horse the meeting attracts.

The Troytown's place in the season is that of an early staying-chase test. Run in November on testing ground, it comes at the point where the winter's staying handicappers are getting into gear, and it has a long habit of pointing forward. Winners and placed horses regularly go on to the big spring staying handicaps at Cheltenham and Aintree, and to the Irish, English and Welsh Grand Nationals. The Big Dog followed his 2022 win by running fifth in the Aintree Grand National, a neat illustration of where the form can lead.

For the track itself, its facilities and the wider Meath racing scene, see the Navan Racecourse complete guide. This section is context for where the race sits in the calendar rather than a betting preview; for the honest picture on backing the race, see the betting angles above.

Troytown Sunday is one of the easier big Irish jumps days to follow from home. The Sunday card is shown free-to-air on RTÉ, on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player, and Navan's meetings are also carried on Racing TV, the subscription channel that covers every Irish course. The Troytown itself goes off in mid-afternoon, at 2.30pm on the 2025 card, and replays are available afterwards on the racecourse's own website and YouTube channel.

Going in person is a straightforward day out. Navan sits at Proudstown, about three miles from Navan town centre and roughly 48 kilometres north-west of Dublin. By road it is reached on the N3 from Dublin and then the R162 Proudstown Road, with ample free parking a short walk from the entrance. There is no passenger rail service to Navan; the nearest station is Drogheda, from where a bus or taxi is needed. Bus Éireann runs services from Dublin's Busáras into Navan town, with a short taxi hop to the track from there.

Admission is simple and inexpensive by the standards of a graded raceday. General admission has been about 15 euro for adults and 10 euro for students, with under-18s admitted free. There is no strict dress code: Navan describes itself as a relaxed, friendly venue and suggests smart casual, with the sensible advice to dress for the weather and wear suitable footwear, which matters on a soft, cold November afternoon.

The Troytown draws a crowd of around 5,000 on the day, an official 4,962 in 2025 and 5,003 in 2024, big enough for atmosphere without the crush of a Cheltenham or an Aintree. The refurbished Troytown Bar beneath the grandstand, with its dance floor and screens, is the social hub, and the festival brings live music and after-parties into the town's pubs and hotels. Come for the racing and the day, read the form for its own sake, and remember that no favourite, however well backed, comes with a guarantee.