Kilbeggan Racecourse is located around 13km from the town of Mullingar in County Westmeath and is one of Ireland's much-loved summer jumps tracks.
They typically race from May through until September, with evening meetings dominating and Friday and Saturday evenings proving particularly popular with racegoers.
Playing on its midlands location, Kilbeggan describes itself as being in the heart of Ireland and the soul of racing.
The feature race on Kilbeggan's calendar is the Midlands National, which takes place in July.
Kilbeggan is a sharp, right-handed round track of around nine furlongs. The course is quite undulating and there is a sharp turn after the penultimate fence before a run-in of around 300 yards on an uphill climb to the winning post.
There are six fences to a circuit of the chase track, which runs outside the inner hurdles loop, which is a particularly tight and turning circuit. Hold-up horses often struggle to land a blow, unless the pace in front is particularly frantic.
Kilbeggan lends itself to horses that enjoy the challenge and often produces course specialists.
The nature of the course means horses are on the turn through much of their races, helping them retain a sharp focus on the job at all times.
That turning nature, allied to its undulating terrain, demands constant focus from horse and rider.
Interestingly, favourites on the hurdles track have a superb 41 per cent strike-rate over the last five seasons, compared to just 18 per cent for the market leaders over fences.
Willie Mullins' 35 winners over the last five seasons is a standout, while Darragh O'Keefe is the leading rider in the same timeframe with 14 winners.
The Darren Collins-trained Pakens Rock is a three-time Kilbeggan winner, including in the spring of 2025 over hurdles.
The 2024 winner, The Wallpark, ran in the Stayers' Hurdle in Cheltenham for Gordon Elliott and JP McManus.
The 2020 winner was Freewheelin Dylan, who went on to make history with victory at 150/1 in the BoyleSports Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse the following year.
