Horse Racing Tips Today: The Irish Racing Desk

Horse racing tips today on Pick Our Team come through the live feed below, written race by race from the declared runners and never filed in advance. Around that feed sits what a punter needs to use it: where Irish racing is on, when the big festivals fall, how each-way terms work and which bookmakers are licensed to take the bet.

Horse racing tips today: the live feed

Racing wireThursday, 29 October 2026

Course	First race	Code	Going	Note
Punchestown	13:05	Flat		Fixture moved from Galway after the Tuesday Galway Flat meeting was cancelled for waterlogging; official going not found
Dundalk		All-weather		Listed for Thursday 29 Oct on the HRI site and a Tipp FM report; first race time and going not confirmed
Bath	13:12	Flat	Heavy	Afternoon meeting, seven races, first race David Cole Memorial EBF Novice Stakes
Ffos Las	13:30	National Hunt	Heavy	Afternoon jump meeting, seven races; going as shown on the Racing Post card for the first race
Stratford	13:20	National Hunt	Soft, good to soft in places	Afternoon jump meeting, seven races
Southwell	18:30	All-weather	Standard (AW)	Twilight meeting; 18:30 is the time of the AWC Season 14 Has Begun Handicap (Div 2) card, not confirmed as the first race

The feed carries the day's cards, our selections and fast results as each race is weighed in. Tomorrow's racing cards join it once the runners are declared, so an empty panel in the morning usually means the declarations are not out yet, or that there is no racing in Ireland that day. Full cards with every runner sit on today's racecards; finished races move to the Irish racing results page.

Who runs Irish racing, and where

Thoroughbred racing on the island is run by Horse Racing Ireland, set up under the Horse and Greyhound Racing Act 2001, and it is organised on an all-island basis. Discipline is a separate job: the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board licenses trainers, jockeys and racecourses and enforces the Rules of Racing, from doping control to handicapping.

There are 26 racecourses, 24 in the Republic and two in Northern Ireland (Down Royal and Downpatrick), and between them they stage roughly 380 meetings a year. Kilbeggan and Wexford race over jumps only. The Curragh, Dundalk's all-weather track and the beach at Laytown are Flat only. Everything else, Galway and Leopardstown included, mixes the two codes through the year, which is why there is Irish racing today on most days of the calendar.

What a tip is worth

A tip is an opinion with a price attached. On its own, "this one wins" is worth nothing; "this one should be shorter than the market says" is the claim worth testing. Our selections are written against the going, the trip, course form and, on the Flat, the draw, and they say when a race is too open to touch.

What you will not find here: no sure things, no inside word from a yard and no staking system sold as a way to make racing pay. Anyone selling those is selling the pitch, not the horse. Most selections lose; a decent judge wins by backing enough of them at the right odds.

The festival calendar, Ireland and Britain

The racing year turns on a handful of meetings. Dates move with the calendar, so the table gives the usual pattern rather than fixtures.

When	Meeting	Course	Feature
First weekend of February	Dublin Racing Festival	Leopardstown	Irish Gold Cup, Irish Champion Hurdle
March, Tuesday to Friday	Cheltenham Festival	Cheltenham (UK)	Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup
Easter Monday	Easter Festival	Fairyhouse	Irish Grand National
April, Saturday of a three-day meeting	Grand National meeting	Aintree (UK)	Grand National
Late April to early May, five days	Punchestown Festival	Punchestown	Champion Chase, Punchestown Gold Cup
Late June or early July	Irish Derby Festival	The Curragh	Irish Derby
From the last Monday of July, seven days	Galway Races	Ballybrit	Galway Plate, Galway Hurdle
September, seven days	Harvest Festival	Listowel	Kerry National
September, one weekend	Irish Champions Festival	Leopardstown, the Curragh	Irish Champion Stakes, Irish St Leger
From St Stephen's Day, four days	Christmas Festival	Leopardstown	Savills Chase

Results: fast, yesterday's and virtual

Fast results land in the feed once a race is official, and the full result goes to the results page. Yesterday's racing results stay there too, so a bet slip from the night before can be checked against the official placings rather than memory.

Virtual racing is a different product. Those races are computer-generated, not run by horses on a track, and their results have nothing to do with the form book. We do not carry them, and nothing on this desk applies to them.

Each-way, BOG and Rule 4 in brief

An each-way bet is two bets of the same size, one to win and one to place, so EUR 5 each-way costs EUR 10. The place half is paid at a fraction of the odds, usually 1/4 or 1/5 depending on the field size and the type of race; our each-way guide has the full table.

A worked example on a straight win bet: EUR 10 at 11/4 makes a profit of EUR 27.50 if the horse wins, so EUR 37.50 comes back including the stake. In decimal terms 11/4 is 3.75.

BOG means that if you take a price and the starting price is bigger, a winner is paid at the starting price; which races and stakes qualify is set in each bookmaker's own terms. Rule 4 works the other way: when a runner is withdrawn late, winnings on the rest are cut on a sliding scale tied to the withdrawn horse's price.

Who can take a racing bet in Ireland

Since 1 July 2026 an online bookmaker serving Irish customers needs a remote betting licence from the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland. The card below lists only firms on that register with a racing product, best first by our licensing and form checks. The licence covers betting, nothing more; any casino attached to the same account runs under a foreign licence.

No.	Runner	Form	Licence	Verdict	Links
1	bet365Hillside (Europe) ENC	1-1-2-2-3	GRAI licence (betting)	NAP	Visit
2	Paddy PowerPPB Counterparty Services Limited	1-1-2-2-3	GRAI licence (betting)	NAP	Visit
3	BetfairPPB Counterparty Services Limited	1-1-4-4-4	GRAI licence (betting)	NAP	Visit
4	BoyleSportsBoylesports (Gibraltar) Limited	1-2-1-2-3	GRAI licence (betting)	Each-way	Visit
5	William HillWH Ireland Limited	1-1-3-2-3	GRAI licence (betting)	Each-way	Visit
6	LadbrokesLC International Limited	1-1-3-2-4	GRAI licence (betting)	Each-way	Visit
7	CoralElectraWorks Limited	1-2-4-4-4	GRAI licence (betting)	Each-way	Visit
8	BetVictorBV Gaming Limited	1-2-5-4-5	GRAI licence (betting)	Each-way	Visit
9	LivescorebetLiveScore Betting and Gaming (Gibraltar) Limited	1-2-3-4-4	GRAI licence (betting)	Each-way	Visit
10	Bar One RacingBar-One Racing Limited	1-3-5-5-5	GRAI licence (betting)	Each-way	Visit

Form reads licence, markets, payments, safer-play tools, terms; 1 is best. How we rate. 18+ only.

The Tote is on the same register, held by TDCO Limited. On-course and tote bets carry no betting duty at all, while a bookmaker taking a bet from a customer in the State pays 2% of turnover; punters pay no tax on winnings either way.

Every page on the racing desk

Festival guides, cards, results and the greyhounds each have their own page.

Betting on racing is for adults: 18+ only, and only with money you can lose without it mattering. If the afternoon cards have started to run your week, deposit limits and a cooling-off break are covered on our responsible gambling page.