Coursetrack, the award-winning live, in-race timing information system, has now been rolled out at all 26 Ireland racecourses – with Laytown’s unique annual fixture on the beach completing the full set.
The system is operated by Racecourse Media Group’s timing partners, Coursetrack, and involves horses carrying lightweight GPS trackers, designed to fit within the saddlecloth.
In-race data for all races in Ireland – including race clock, leader’s speed, leader’s time per furlong and distance to finish – is supplied to networks, including RTE, Virgin Media, ITV and Racing TV, for live broadcasts.
Jessica Cahalan, General Manager at Laytown Racecourse, was excited to see the pioneering data in action at Monday’s fixture, and said:
“We were delighted Laytown completed the full set of Irish racecourses deploying Coursetrack’s data and were very impressed with how easy it was to implement and operate for Monday’s fixture, given the track’s unique characteristics. If you can run the system on a remote beach, then no doubt you could run it anywhere!”
Working with Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) and Association of Irish Racecourses (AIR), and the individual Irish racecourses, the data has been broadcast on-screen and published online for all races at all Irish racecourses from the start of the year.
Paul Hensey, CEO of Association of Irish Racecourses, added:
“The flawless roll-out of Coursetrack’s system to all 26 Irish racecourses is a significant step forward for the sport, as we look to engage new and existing fans and punters with interesting and engaging data. Thanks to this ultra-reliable, low-latency and easy-to-interpret data, racing is now catching up with other data-driven sports.”
Ross Kierans, Head of Raceday Operations & Broadcast at HRI:
“The roll-out of Coursetrack’s system to all 26 Irish racecourses has proved most successful and helps us to better understand our sport, providing both trainers and fans with a clearer picture of horse racing dynamics, pushing the boundaries of performance analysis and ultimately adding an extra layer of excitement and insight to Irish racing.”
Chris Murtagh, Operations Director at Coursetrack, said:
“Laytown, by virtue of being staged on a beach for only one fixture a year, could have posed a challenge or two, but there were zero issues, and we were very grateful for all the support from Laytown Racecourse. Indeed, I’d like to thank the Irish racecourses, who have all supported us on the roll-out. It’s been a pleasure working with HRI, AIR and the individual racecourses.”
Sectional time reports for each race are published in the results section on www.racingtv.com/results, and other affiliated websites, the day after racing.
Coursetrack also supports the creation of new engaging performance metrics and insights – via Race iQ – which helps evaluate a horse’s performance and serves as a valuable tool for analysing a race and for in-running betting.
In Britain, Coursetrack is currently operating on 34 racecourses, and bookmakers, including Boylesports, Ladbrokes, Coral, BetVictor and William Hill, are utilising Coursetrack’s data to offer in-play pricing and betting on UK horse racing. There is scope for that now to be extended to Irish racing. There is more about in-play betting here.
The service has won a prestigious Sports Technology Award – “The Oscars of Sports Innovation” – for best use of data.
Please click here for a Q+A on timing information, plus analyst James Willoughby’s views on its importance to the sport.