How studying the tracks can turbocharge your punting

Last week it was Goodwood and Galway, this week it is Brighton's turn to stage its annual festival. It is fair to say these meetings span quite a gulf in terms of prestige, but they are more equal in terms of demonstrating one of the most underplayed selling points of racing in Britain and Ireland.

In no other major racing jurisdiction is the track itself such an influential actor. In the Racing Post's series on Greatest Racecourses, published in the spring, almost all venues abroad earned their place on the basis of setting. That exists at Epsom and Goodwood and Ascot too, of course, but their configurations also form part of the appeal and in some cases, such as Epsom, they genuinely augment the story behind the venue's more famous races.

It is by no means a monopoly. You can find a straight mile just over the English Channel in Deauville, and on the other side of the world Moonee Valley bears a passable resemblance to ever-turning Chester. It is supposed, though, that Britain and Ireland could match the rest of the world combined in terms of quirky tracks. It seems unlikely that the mantra of 'horses for courses' comes up quite so often in the PMU cafes of Brittany or the racinos of Pennsylvania.