Horse Racing Venues: Listowel

Listowel is home to the Harvest Festival and Whit Weekend meetings and is one of the top racecourses in Ireland. It’s a testing, extremely competitive flat track that hosts both National Hunt and Flat racing throughout the year.

The racecourse is located in County Kerry and is handily placed close to the centre of Listowel, as it’s just a short skip over the River Feale to get there. Listowel Racecourse is sandwiched fairly evenly between Dublin, Sligo, Cork and Galway. It’s less than a four-hour drive from any of those locations, with Sligo being the furthest.

Here is what you need to know:

A history of Listowel Racecourse

Listowel Races has been at its current location, close to the city centre, for more than 150 years, and the course celebrated its 160^th anniversary in 2018. However, the history of racing in Listowel itself is linked back to what was an annual gathering at Ballyeigh, Ballybunion, less than 10 miles from Listowel. In the early 1800s, the meeting was a celebration of horse racing and other games.

Interestingly, a faction fight was scheduled to conclude the annual event in Ballyeigh, but in 1834 things got out of hand. With over 3,000 fighters involved in the pre-arranged fight between factions such as the Coolens and the Lawlors, the day ended with more than 200 fatalities.

Racing was then separated from the event and moved into Listowel as the action at Ballyeigh was suspended. The first official horse racing meeting at Listowel was in 1858 on 5^th October. In 1924, the first permanent stand at Listowel was opened along with the enclosure. The first concrete stand at the venue followed in 1957, the year before Listowel Racecourse had its Centenary Year celebrations.

The first Spring Meetings (March and April) were established in 1966, and in 1977 the Harvest Festival was extended to five days, before getting bumped up to its current seven-day status in 2002. The new Hannon Stand was opened in 1980, with the New Hugh Friel Stand launched the following year.

The Listowel circuit

Listowel is an oval-shaped, left-handed racecourse that has a 2f run-in to the finish line after the final turn. For 7f and 1m contests, there is a straight chute that bisects the course. Listowel is a narrow track, presenting a different challenge from many other Irish courses.

Typically, the going is towards the soft side at Listowel, which provides better handling for the jockeys, but means that the focus is often on more tactical races than just a reliance on sheer speed. It is a course that consistently asks horses to dig deep into their wells of stamina. It is not unusual to see the field get stretched out very quickly at Listowel, due to the conditions being so tough to handle.

While Listowel is a flat track, there are undulating sections around it, adding to the challenge, particularly when the going is heavy. As Listowel has historically been a testing venue, jockeys, trainers and horses alike generally need a little time to get used to it. Some horses struggle to get to grips with racing there, so those with previous experience on the course often carry an advantage.

The draw doesn’t often come into play too much at Listowel. Only on the times when the ground happens to be a little on the firmer side does a low draw help. For the jumps, the chute is incorporated, making it a tight course with sharp corners, and there are five fences on the National Hunt circuit.

What makes Listowel special?

There is a rich heritage at Listowel, having started in 1858. This heritage plays into the great environment that’s always around at the venue for its big annual meetings – the Listowel Harvest Festival and the Listowel Whit Weekend.

The venue celebrates ‘Serious Fun, Serious Racing’, which gives a clear picture of what the experience at Listowel races is all about. Spectators congregate in the New Stand Complex, which provides great views of the action on the track along with bars and restaurants. On the upper level, which is accessible by reservations, there are corporate suites and a dining area.

The Hannon Stand overlooks the enclosure, and it is a place for reserved seating, along with a reserved Stand and a couple of bars for refreshments. It’s the wonderful blend of locals and visitors from all over Ireland that gives Listowel such a special, exciting atmosphere. There is plenty for punters, who can enjoy on-course betting, including at the Tote facilities.

Part of the Listowel experience includes retail outlets and the venue’s shop, and for the big Harvest Festival meeting, there is a giant screen for extra coverage, with live music at the end of each day’s racing for a real party atmosphere.

The course has a long and storied history, and during the Harvest Festival in September, there are big occasions such as the Kerry National and the enormously popular Ladies’ Day, for which there is a prize for the best dressed.

Key events at Listowel Racecourse

Listowel is one of the most popular and well-attended racetracks in the country. Up until 2023, Listowel Racecourse only hosted nine race days per year. However, in 2024, an extra day was added to the calendar as the Whit Weekend was bolstered from a two-day festival to a three-day event.

 Popular Races at Listowel:

 Kerry Group Steeplechase

• The Edmund & Josie Whelan Memorial Listowel Stakes
• Guinness Kerry National
• The MCG Handicap Hurdle
• J. Carroll ARRO Handicap Hurdle

Despite only having a smaller number of race days per year in comparison to other major Irish racecourses such as Leopardstown and The Curragh, this doesn’t stop the crowds pouring through the gate at Listowel. The seven-day Listowel Harvest Festival, for example, sees around 90,000 visitors attend.

Listowel Whit Weekend

Listowel Whit Weekend is a bank holiday celebration at the venue in June. In 2024, the previous two-day festival received a substantial shake-up as an additional third day of racing was included. The Whit Weekend featured National Hunt racing on Saturday and Monday, with a day of Flat racing sandwiched in between on Sunday.

The course had been campaigning for the extra day since the previous year, and the newly formatted June meeting was a huge hit. Among the racing highlights, the Whit Festival includes the Join Racing TV Now Handicap Hurdle, the John J. Galvin Chase, the Croom House Stud Handicap, the Pat Smullen Race and the Anglo Printers Remembering John H. Kierans Mares Hurdle.

Listowel Harvest Festival

September’s Listowel Harvest Festival provides the bulk of the year’s racing. It begins annually on a Sunday with the ‘Kerry Group Day’ featuring the Kerry Group Steeplechase, and runs through to the following Saturday, which features the M.J. Carroll ARRO Handicap Hurdle as a highlight, for a total of seven huge days of racing.

Friday is Ladies’ Day, when the MCG Handicap Hurdle of €100,000 takes place as the day’s feature race. Other top races of the Listowel Harvest Festival to look out for are the Edmund & Josie Whelan Memorial Listowel Stakes, the Listowel Printing Works Handicap and the Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle.

The most valuable race that Listowel hosts, however, is the Kerry National. The Grade 3 Kerry National is run on the Wednesday of the Harvest Festival meeting at a distance of three miles and features 18 fences.

The fixture is open to four-year-olds and above that have had at least three previous trips over the fences. Jockey Lisa O’Neill scored a fantastic achievement of back-to-back wins in the race in 2016 and 2017, and through 2023 was the only jockey to have won the race twice since the turn of the century.

Top Irish trainers Gordon Elliott, Willie Mullins and Joseph O’Brien have all scored wins in the popular fixture since 2014. Mullins scored with Cabaret Queen in 2020, drawing him level with Eric McNamara as the most successful trainer in the history of the Kerry National, standing at three wins each.

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