Boxing Day Racing 2026: Every Meeting, Race Times and the King George VI Chase
By the MyHorseBets team · Updated · 13 min read
Boxing Day racing in 2026 falls on Saturday 26 December, and it is one of the busiest days of the British jumps season. The centrepiece is the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase at Kempton Park, a Grade 1 steeplechase over three miles, and it shares the afternoon with meetings at Aintree, Wetherby, Fontwell, Market Rasen and Wolverhampton. Across the Irish Sea, Leopardstown opens its four-day Christmas Festival on the same day.
This guide to Boxing Day horse racing lists every meeting we could confirm from the racecourses’ own sites, the first race times that have been published, what the King George is and who has won it, when the runners will be known, and how the most popular Boxing Day bets work out in pounds and pence. We don’t publish tips or selections. We’ll add race times and declared fields to the update log as they are published.
Boxing Day Racing 2026: Which Courses Race on 26 December?
On 2 July 2026 the British Horseracing Authority confirmed a reshaped Christmas programme. Its press release describes 26 December as “Ladbrokes Christmas Festival, Kempton Park, Ladbrokes King George VI Chase Day, with races from Aintree and Wetherby”. Those three meetings are the ones ITV Racing will show. Other courses race on Boxing Day too, and each of the racecourses below lists a fixture on Saturday 26 December 2026 on its own website.
Confirmed Boxing Day 2026 Meetings
| Course | Racing | Races | First race | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kempton Park | Jumps | 6 in 2025 | Not yet published | Day one of the Ladbrokes Christmas Festival, King George VI Chase Day |
| Aintree | Jumps | 7 | 12.00pm | William Hill Boxing Day Racing, gates open 10.30am, last race 3.25pm |
| Wetherby | Jumps | 7 | Not yet published | Yorkshire Christmas Meeting, Day One, feature race the Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase, gates 10.00am |
| Fontwell Park | Jumps | 7 | 11.52am | Figure-of-eight turf track, gates open 9.52am |
| Market Rasen | Jumps | 6 | 12.35pm | The Rand Farm Park Boxing Day Racing |
| Wolverhampton | Flat (all-weather) | 8 | 1.45pm | The only Flat meeting we could confirm, gates open 11.45am |
The Kempton race count is based on last year’s six-race King George card; Kempton’s Christmas Festival page promises “12 top quality races over two days” for 2026. All times are as each racecourse published them on 2 October 2026 and can change before the day.
Courses We Checked That Are Not Racing
Not every traditional Boxing Day course appears this year. Huntingdon has raced on Boxing Day in the past (the Jockey Club still hosts a page for its 2022 Boxing Day card), but its 2026 events list runs through a Festive Fiver fixture on 21 December with nothing on the 26th. Sedgefield’s site lists no fixture beyond November 2026 at the time of writing. Chepstow does not race on Boxing Day 2026 either: its big Christmas meeting has moved to Monday 28 December, which we cover below. If any course adds a fixture, we’ll add it to the table.
Is Boxing Day a Jumps Day or a Flat Day?
Mostly jumps. Most Boxing Day races are over hurdles and fences: five of the six meetings in the table are National Hunt cards, because late December sits in the middle of the jumps season. Wolverhampton’s all-weather track is the exception, so if you prefer the Flat, that is the meeting to follow. Our guide to National Hunt racing explains hurdles, chases and bumpers if the jumps code is new to you.
Kempton Boxing Day: The Ladbrokes Christmas Festival
Kempton Park, in Sunbury, stages the biggest of the Boxing Day meetings. According to Kempton’s own Christmas Festival page, the 2026 festival runs on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 December, with day one named King George VI Chase Day and day two Kauto Star Chase Day.
What Is on the Kempton Boxing Day Card
The 2026 race times have not been published yet. As a guide to the shape of the day, here is the 2025 King George Day card from the Jockey Club’s event page:
| Time (2025) | Race | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| 12.45pm | Handicap Chase | 2m 4f 110y |
| 1.20pm | Wayward Lad Novices’ Chase (Grade 2) | 2m |
| 1.55pm | Christmas Hurdle (Grade 1) | 2m |
| 2.30pm | King George VI Chase (Grade 1) | 3m |
| 3.05pm | Maiden Hurdle | 2m |
| 3.40pm | Mares’ Handicap Hurdle | 3m 121y |
Gates opened at 10.30am in 2025. We’ll replace this with the 2026 card once Kempton publishes it.
The Christmas Hurdle
The Christmas Hurdle is the other Grade 1 on Boxing Day at Kempton. Wikipedia describes it as a race over about two miles, “scheduled to take place each year during the King George VI Chase meeting on Boxing Day”. Constitution Hill won it three years running, in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and Sir Gino won in 2025. Kempton lists the Ladbrokes Christmas Hurdle among the Grade 1 races of its 2026 festival.
What Changed for 2026
Under the BHA’s July announcement, the Ladbrokes Kauto Star Chase moves to 27 December, the second day at Kempton. The BHA said spreading the big meetings across 26 to 29 December “removes the current clash between Kempton and Chepstow on 27 December”.
The King George VI Chase
The King George VI Chase is the feature race of Boxing Day racing and, for many jumps fans, the highlight of the Christmas holiday. It is a Grade 1 steeplechase at Kempton Park, which means the best staying chasers in Britain and Ireland meet at level weights, apart from the standard allowance for mares.
What the King George Chase Is
According to the King George VI Chase article on Wikipedia, the race is run over three miles with 18 fences and is open to horses aged four and over. It is a championship test for staying chasers, run at Christmas rather than in the spring. In 2025 it was the fourth race on the card, off at 2.30pm.
History and Famous Winners
Kempton’s own King George page says the race “first ran in 1937 and was named after the newly crowned king”, and that the first winner, Southern Hero, is still the oldest winner at 12. Wikipedia notes that Kempton was closed during the Second World War and the race returned in 1947 on Boxing Day, the date it has kept ever since.
Two horses define it. Desert Orchid won four times, and Kauto Star, in the words of the Jockey Club, became “the only horse to date to win the King George VI Chase five times”. Ruby Walsh rode all five of Kauto Star’s wins, and Paul Nicholls is the race’s leading trainer with 13 victories, according to Wikipedia.
Recent King George Winners
| Year | Winner | Jockey | Trainer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | The Jukebox Man | Ben Jones | Ben Pauling |
| 2024 | Banbridge | Paul Townend | Joseph O’Brien |
| 2023 | Hewick | Gavin Sheehan | John Joseph Hanlon |
| 2022 | Bravemansgame | Harry Cobden | Paul Nicholls |
| 2021 | Tornado Flyer | Danny Mullins | Willie Mullins |
| 2020 | Frodon | Bryony Frost | Paul Nicholls |
| 2019 | Clan des Obeaux | Sam Twiston-Davies | Paul Nicholls |
| 2018 | Clan des Obeaux | Harry Cobden | Paul Nicholls |
Winners, jockeys and trainers from Wikipedia, checked on 2 October 2026. The 2025 running had eight runners, and according to Sky Sports The Jukebox Man, in the colours of Harry Redknapp, “was called a nose in front of” the previous year’s winner Banbridge.
When the King George Runners Are Known
Not yet. The field is only final at the declaration stage. In 2025, the Racing Post published the confirmed runners and riders on Tuesday 23 December, three days before the race, noting that Croke Park “was the only one of nine entries not declared on Tuesday”. Christmas Day sits in the way, so expect the 2026 field around the same point in Christmas week. We’ll add the declared runners to the update log on this page once they are published.
Christmas Racing Beyond Boxing Day
Boxing Day is the first of four straight days of big racing in 2026, and two of the most searched-for meetings fall on other dates.
Welsh Grand National: Monday 28 December
The Coral Welsh Grand National is usually run on 27 December, but not in 2026. Chepstow Racecourse says it “will now take place on Bank Holiday Monday 28 December 2026”, as part of what it calls “an exciting new initiative from the British Horseracing Authority, ITV Racing, and Entain”. Chepstow puts the race’s value at £170,000. Wikipedia describes it as a Premier Handicap chase over 3 miles 6½ furlongs with 23 fences, first run in 1895. Chepstow lists a provisional first race of 12.00pm.
Leopardstown and Limerick in Ireland
Leopardstown says its 2026 Christmas Festival runs from 26 to 29 December, with four days of National Hunt racing and seven Grade 1 races across the meeting. Limerick also races over the Christmas period; its site prices hospitality for 26, 27, 28 and 29 December. Irish-trained horses run on both sides of the Irish Sea at Christmas: Willie Mullins ran Gaelic Warrior and Fact To File in the 2025 King George, according to the Racing Post. Which horses a stable sends to Kempton, Leopardstown or Limerick is only known at declarations.
The Rest of the Christmas Programme
The BHA’s schedule for the four days is: Kempton, Aintree and Wetherby on 26 December; Kempton, Wetherby and Hereford on 27 December; Chepstow and Leicester on 28 December; and the Coral Challow Hurdle at Newbury, with Doncaster, on 29 December. Those are the ITV meetings; other fixtures can run alongside them.
Betting on Boxing Day: Why Multiples Are So Popular
With six British meetings and Leopardstown on one afternoon, Boxing Day gives you more races to choose from than almost any other day of the year. That is why so many people place a single multiple bet across several meetings rather than a string of singles, from a Lucky 15 to a straight accumulator (our acca calculator settles those, including each way legs). Whatever you bet, decide on a budget for the whole Christmas period before the 26th: four days of racing in a row is a lot of betting.
Lucky 15 and Yankee Costs
A Lucky 15 is four selections in different races combined into 15 bets: four singles, six doubles, four trebles and one four-fold. A Yankee is the same four selections without the singles, so 11 bets. The cost is the unit stake times the number of bets:
| Bet | Bets | 50p stake | £1 stake | 50p each way |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucky 15 | 15 | £7.50 | £15 | £15 |
| Yankee | 11 | £5.50 | £11 | £11 |
Each way doubles the number of bets, which is why a 50p each way Lucky 15 costs £15. Our Lucky 15 calculator and Yankee calculator work out the return for any mix of winners, placed horses and non-runners.
A Worked Lucky 15 Example
Take a 50p win Lucky 15 (£7.50) with selections at Kempton, Aintree, Wetherby and Fontwell. Two win, at 3/1 and 5/1, and two lose.
- Single at 3/1: 50p x 4 = £2.
- Single at 5/1: 50p x 6 = £3.
- Double: 50p x 4 x 6 = £12.
- Every treble and the four-fold include a loser, so they return nothing.
Total return: £17, a profit of £9.50 on the £7.50 staked. With only one winner at 3/1, the return would be £2, a loss of £5.50. The singles are what keep a Lucky 15 alive when only one selection wins, and they are the difference between it and a Yankee, where one winner returns nothing.
A Worked Each Way Example
Boxing Day cards include several handicaps, and place terms depend on field size. Under standard UK terms, a handicap with 16 or more runners pays four places at 1/4 of the odds. Suppose you place £5 each way at 10/1 in a 16-runner handicap chase. The bet costs £10. The place odds are 10/1 x 1/4 = 5/2.
- The horse wins. Win half: £5 x 10 = £50 plus the £5 stake, so £55. Place half: £5 x 5/2 = £12.50 plus £5, so £17.50. Total return £72.50, a profit of £62.50.
- The horse finishes second, third or fourth. The win half loses. The place half returns £17.50, a profit of £7.50.
- The horse finishes fifth or worse. You lose £10.
If one late withdrawal takes the race down to 15 runners, the terms drop to three places at 1/4, and a fourth-placed finish no longer pays. Our guide to what an each way bet is has the full table of place terms, and the each way calculator runs the numbers for any price.
Ante-Post and NRNB on the King George
You can back a horse for the King George months before Boxing Day, usually at a bigger price, but with ante-post terms you normally lose your stake if it doesn’t run. Some bookmakers switch to non-runner no bet (NRNB) terms closer to the race, which return your stake if your horse is withdrawn. Our ante-post betting guide explains both, and if a rival is withdrawn after you have taken a price, the Rule 4 calculator shows the deduction.
Update Log
We update this page as Boxing Day approaches. Dates are when we checked the official sources.
- 2 October 2026: Page published with the Boxing Day 2026 fixtures from the BHA’s 2 July 2026 Christmas schedule and the racecourse sites of Kempton, Aintree, Wetherby, Fontwell, Market Rasen and Wolverhampton. Kempton’s 2026 race times and the King George field are not yet published.
Next update: when Kempton publishes its 2026 race times, and again when the King George field is declared in Christmas week.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Saturday 26 December 2026 has racing at Kempton, Aintree, Wetherby, Fontwell, Market Rasen and Wolverhampton, according to the BHA and the racecourses' own sites. Kempton stages the King George VI Chase, and Leopardstown in Ireland starts its Christmas Festival the same day.
Yes. Kempton's Ladbrokes Christmas Festival opens on Saturday 26 December 2026 with King George VI Chase Day and continues on Sunday 27 December. The King George and the Christmas Hurdle are both Grade 1 races on the Christmas programme there.
Yes. Aintree holds William Hill Boxing Day Racing on Saturday 26 December 2026: a seven-race jumps card with the first race at 12.00pm and the last at 3.25pm, according to the Jockey Club. Gates open at 10.30am.
Yes. Wetherby stages Day One of its Yorkshire Christmas Meeting on Saturday 26 December 2026, a seven-race card headlined by the Rowland Meyrick Handicap Chase, with gates opening at 10.00am. Day Two follows on Sunday 27 December.
The 2026 runners are not known yet. The field is set at the declaration stage in Christmas week; in 2025 the runners were confirmed on 23 December. Until then, any list is of entries or ante-post contenders. We add the declared field to this page's update log.
In 2026 the Coral Welsh Grand National is on Bank Holiday Monday 28 December at Chepstow, a day later than its traditional 27 December slot. It moved as part of the BHA and ITV plan to spread the big Christmas meetings over four days.
Kauto Star holds the record with five wins and Desert Orchid won four. Recent winners include The Jukebox Man in 2025, Banbridge in 2024 and Hewick in 2023. Paul Nicholls is the most successful trainer in the race's history, with 13 victories.