The British Army once had a base in Roscommon and they organised the first race here in the 1830s. However, race meetings only became a frequent event from the 1880s onwards.
The local race goers are renowned for their friendliness and many a good night can be had in the nearby pubs following a meeting! The highlight of the year is the Grade 3 Kilbegnet Novice Chase, usually held in October. The course itself is a right-handed rectangle shape, which is roughly one mile and two furlongs in distance. The surface is generally flat, but he turns are fairly sharp. Over jumps, there are five furlongs to a circuit and the run-in is around 200 yards. There are no significant draw statistics on the flat.
Tony Martin, David Wachman and Joanna Morgan are all trainers of note here, with each showing a strike-rate above 20%. Jockey wise, Ruby Walsh has performed well here in recent years, although many of his mounts go off at short prices so it's difficult to make money from backing him.
Roscommon flat favourites perform quite well here at 33.75% and have actually shown a profit to level stakes over the past five years. However, their jumps counterparts show a strike rate of just 29.6% and heavy losses when followed.
Regarding previous course form, there are huge disparities between the flat and jumps. Flat horses that won here before have a 20% strike rate on their return and show a healthy profit if blindly backed (although the sample is quite small). However, jumps horses with previous course form show a strike-rate of just 10.8% and a big loss to level stakes.