Is Punchestown as good as they say it is?

Rubbish festival ...rubbish food ....rubbish bookies....rubbish track ....rubbish facilities....Apart from that it's as good as they say it is...

Terrific track, excellent facilities, top racing.

You do need to organise your transport in advance, though, as its not in the most accessible of places.

Good for a Punch up

You have a system Dunc

Afterthought racing ....horrible facilities ..... Out in the middle of nowhere ....and the only grade 1 track with a downhill finish.... Can't remember the last fence in front that got beat....a khazi...

Which Irish racecourse would you recommend paulie ?

Went to the first day a few years back, got the bus from Dublin, was handed free tickets in the car park form some Irish Tote Members and found it much less packed than Aintree or Cheltenham (could easily get to the rails), bus back was easy too

That should have been the last horse to jump the last fence in front and get beat..

All Irish racecourses are muck compared to their English counterparts ...facilities wise in particular ....leopardstown   naas   Curragh are all good tracks but the facilities are poor at best....gowran is another good track as is navan....

Nothing wrong with the track,could do with better catering facilities but what track couldn't?,other than Friday which is the biggest day you can get a look at the parade ring before betting as crowds are manageable compared to Prestbury Park.

Racing obviously not as good as Chelt but still mostly good quality racing.

it's too diluted, there are some good championship races but also alot of sub standard festival races like ordinary novice hurdles, extra bumpers etc

Paulie will be telling us it's not as good as some of the Iranian tracks he rode at next. What a c*nt.

..and who are 'they' btw?

Its not in the middle of nowhere,its less than 30 minutes from Dublin.

Its traffic management is brilliant,you will be out in under ten minutes.

The racing is great all our best horses will run there.

The banks are spectacular as are the cross country races.

The atmosphere is less frenetic more relaxed.

The way the Euro is collapsing it will cost British visitors little,great value.

The downhill finish is unusual but doesn't prevent good finishes.

You'd go a long way to beat Leopardstown on a big NH day.

downhill finish...didnt realise that..as you say, unusual

where is this downhill crap coming from....

Downhill all the way round I heard

wow i was there for sprinter , and i didnt notice the down hill finish ,mind u i agree that it is very hard to get some good food at these tracks ,maybe its different in the top restaurants at these tracks ,as ive never eating in them ,but apart from that its always crap food for big prices ,but i guess that does'nt shock any of us .but i must ask ,there must be some where good at the curragh and leopardstown plus punchestown where the rich can eat the top food .

We went a few years ago 1999 I think  ,go on ladies day!!  best day of ever had at a race course , the amount of unbelievable looking ladies was just incredible, so much so we gave up on the horses after two races ! When anyone mentions punchestown or the mere sight of the word ! the memories come flooding back ;) what a day :)

Down hill finish , who gives a flying fk lol

Punchestown is not as good as they say it is............. IT IS BETTER!

Its an hour in a cab from Dublin i recall. Not ideal after a skinful the night before :(

Facilities are guff (not much change from a 10er for sausage and chip as i remember), racing is average. location awful.

One bug bare of mine is how the only track within public transport distance of dublin city centre decides to put so much racing on a thursday evening during the summer

leopardstown

the festival though does better racing wise than it should given its proximity in the year.

its as described,middle of nowhere, besides 2 races a day the rest is average at best,looks to be loads of nice places to eat and drink but you go to get in and its corporate only,hence the reason theres loads of free tickets everywhere ,there tkts to nowhere really
my advice would be to get up early get the bus to nass decent high stret few bars ,then get a taxi to the course,forget the bull about nice walk if its a nice day no chance,miss one of the final 2 bumpers and get the bus from the course back to dublin,its one of your list but you probably wont go again,we had 2 tkts for 2 days but spent the 2nd day in dublin centre watching the 2 main races in the pub

One bug bare of mine is how the only track....

Bugbear

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Punchestown is part of the holy trinity of meetings that makes this the best time of the year for us race fans. Used to go every year from the UK. Stayed in Dublin. Always great and cheap admission even off touts. Have stopped going because I don't like the late starts and attendant late finishes - getting back into Dublin for 9pm meant late eats and missing half the major Champions League games - not my scene. Might go on a Saturday in future when the times are more to my taste.

i knew i spelt something wrong duncan

   just for future ref, queenie!

THEY are saying it again

Fantastic week - better than Cheltenham in my view.