Haydock Tips

Situated in Merseyside, North West England, Haydock Park Racecourse is a near-perfect split between the cities of Liverpool and Manchester, around 15 miles from each. The course itself doesn’t feel overly urban though, instead set its located in an area of parkland just east of the town of Haydock. Home to 32 days of racing each year, Haydock Park is the premier duel track in the North West, staging the very best of flat and jump racing that is owned and operated by The Jockey Club.

The course has four grandstands and 33 private viewing suites as well as all the usual hospitality and refreshment facilities to help its thousands of annual visitors enjoy the very best of British horse racing. Mainstays of the Haydock calendar include the Grand National Trial in February, the Temple Stakes in May, the Old Newton Cup and Lancashire Oaks in July, the Sprint Cup in September and the Betfair Chase in November. The Betfair Chase is the first leg of the National Hunt Triple Crown, which carries a £1 million bonus, and was won by the legendary Kauto Star a record four times.

Haydock Race Course History

Haydock Park Racecourse is steeped in 250 years of racing history, with racing taking place here since 1899 and meetings being held nearby in Newton-le-Willows as far back as 1752. Known as The Newton meetings after local gentry established the pursuit back in the day, racing continued in Newton for many years, and in 1836 they had recorded their first famous winner, the legendary mare Queen of Trumps. Today, the Old Newton Cup is a reminder of the old links between the Newton course and Haydock Park.

For many years, the Newton race meetings were held on Golborne Heath until the area between Liverpool and Manchester began to develop under the industrial revolution which in turn brought workers and immigrants to the area who then started to attend the fixtures and boost racing’s popularity still further. From there, the course grew into what it is today with early development overseen by course secretary, chairman, and managing director Sydney Sandon, whose legacy the modern track has become.

Haydock Race Course Track Configuration and Bias

• Left Handed with uphill approach on run-in
• Galloper’s track
• Low drawn horses have the better record

Haydock Park is mainly flat, run left-handed and could be best be described as a galloper’s track. Both of its courses, the long and the short, suit long-striding, galloping horses especially when soft, which is the norm. In sprints, low drawn horses have fared better over recent years especially when soft or heavy, but in busier fields of 18+ runners, horses drawn in double-figures have struggled especially if they are slow out of the stalls.

There is a steep uphill incline on the run-in of the one mile five furlong track, while the National Hunt course has a total of ten tricky fences, said to be second only to Aintree in terms of difficulty.

Haydock Racing Season

Haydock Park is one of the finest racecourses in the United Kingdom and is famous for staging high-quality racing in both flat and jumps all year round. For jump racing, also known as National Hunt, the highlight is Grand National Trial, which used to be known as the Gold Cup and takes place in February before the actual Grand National itself runs in April at Aintree, just over 13 miles away. Other prestigious races include the Dick Hern Fillies’ Stakes, named in honor of the late trainer Dick Hern.

On the Flat, the highlight is the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup, which goes in early September. Before racegoers can look forward to the 5f Temple Stakes in May and August’s the Rose of Lancaster Stakes. November sees the Betfair Chase, a Grade 1 National Hunt steeplechase open to horses aged five and up over a distance of 3 miles and 1½ furlongs, while January kicks off with the Champion Hurdle Trial in preparation for Cheltenham.

Haydock Race Course address and website

Haydock Park Racecourse, Newton-le-Willows,
Merseyside, WA12 0HQ, United Kingdom
https://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/haydock/

Haydock Best Jockeys and Trainers

Because Haydock hosts major events in both the winter’s National Hunt season and the flat season over the summer, the action is pretty much running all year round at the Merseyside track. Trainers work tirelessly throughout the year to bring a winner to this course, which has a history that dates back over 200 years.

Over that time, Haydock has created many legends of the sport of kings but who are the trainers you should be keeping an eye on this season? To help you make your picks, we have shortlisted the best performing Haydock trainers over the past three seasons.

Haydock Park plays home to both forms of horse racing on the British calendar so it makes sense that to pick a jockey that knows how to tackle numerous conditions. Here, the turns may be tight, but the long and steady straights make for one of the fairest courses in the country. Still, as with any race course, there is no substitute for experience so riders that have been here before are preferred. Better still, jockeys that have not just ridden here, but won too.