Life’s a beach, and then you bet on one… if you’re at Laytown anyway!
One beach, six races, lots of betting (and Guinness no doubt). Here’s a quick post about the 150-year-old horse racing tradition in Ireland…
Beach Racing Since 1868
Almost every year since 1868 there’s been something a bit different on the racecard in September, Laytown. Excluding obvious breaks, such as 1942-1945 the Irish have kept the tradition alive.
Here’s a picture of Laytown Racecourse this morning…
Easily the lowest maintained race track known to man!
Probably the quickest constructed too. Those organising the event have only 3 hours to get the course ready with low-tide shortly before. With all the bureaucracy and red tape the modern world brings I can only imagine how much hard work that can be.
Spectators would previously idle on the beach and watch. Now there’s rails, stalls and all manner of tech involved. Unfortunately, a freak incident brought this on in 1994 when a spooked horse collided with the crowd. There weren’t any human fatalities although three horses had to be put down due to injuries.
I haven’t been myself (yet) although I’m sure I will at some point. A quick scan shows tickets are cheap Official Laytown Ticket Site.
Have you been? Would you recommend it?
Laytown Betting Odds!
It’s no surprise to find the betting markets at Laytown are thinner than a standard race, although popularity increased a few minutes before the start.
For me, Betfair trading, this highlights something I’ve always paid attention to. I started a poll about it on Twitter.
Does Irish Racing bring more ‘insider money’ than most?
Looking at the price action today would certainly leave you thinking that way…
Not all but most races see the favourite heavily backed, and late too. Possibly bookmakers were also dumping liability on the exchange? With less interest, it’s highly likely that books were more ‘unbalanced’.
For me, the afternoon started off a little slow but picked up nicely toward the middle-end.
From a trading perspective, the Laytown races present an opportunity to be more disciplined than usual. This isn’t a bad thing though, when something moves it generally doesn’t stop easily presenting a solid swing trading opportunity.
Follow the Money at Laytown?
Confident Kid was one of those opportunities in the last. The Betfair graph doesn’t really do it much justice.
If you ignore the tiny bets early on and look closely, you’ll see there was quite a move there. Before the live show the price wasn’t far away from 20, by post time it was below 10.
The money wasn’t mind-blowing, although when you consider the overall market volume it was fair.
Not surprising to see the horse to go on and win. The Irish knew and the money was down!
Related Reading: 5 Matched Betting Tips to Help You Win Regularly