Get ready to gorge on a festive feast crowned by the King George, Welsh Grand National and Savills Chase
Scott Burton picks out the big races, eye-catching entries and key events you can't afford to miss this week
Click here to add us to your Google preferred sources or find out more here
Much like the Christmas period in many family homes across Britain and Ireland, it pays to pace yourself when it comes to the festive racing action.
We'll starve ourselves for three days after Monday's meagre fare, only for the gluttons among us to wake up on Friday ready for treats aplenty, anticipating a full gallop through some of the best racing that the jumps season has to offer.
While it's hard to argue that in recent seasons the overall whole has been more nutritious over the four days of Leopardstown's Christmas Festival, Kempton and, specifically, the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase on Boxing Day, is the light on the tree which traditionally shines brightest.
Thanks to Willie Mullins' intention to aim for Kempton with the one-two from the John Durkan Chase, Gaelic Warrior and Fact To File, the King George will have little difficulty in living up to its historical billing, while last season's top novices, Arkle hero Jango Baie and The Jukebox Man - an impressive winner of the Kauto Star over course and distance 12 months ago - mean British trainers won't be the spectres at their own feast.
Jango Baie's trainer Nicky Henderson also runs another of last Christmas's greatest chasing hits, Sir Gino. After 364 days away from the limelight, he tackles the supposedly calmer waters of the Ladbrokes Christmas Hurdle, although Golden Ace retains a pleasing indifference to tall reputations after unlikely victories in the Champion Hurdle and the Fighting Fifth.
The Grade 1 action on December 26 does not stop there, with a clutch of young chasers bidding to succeed The Jukebox Man on the roll of honour for the Ladbrokes Kauto Star Novices' Chase, while at Aintree - whisper it quietly - a British-trained favourite for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle, Mydaddypaddy, is due to put his unbeaten record on the line in the William Hill Formby Novices' Hurdle.
The five-course banquet is completed by the first of six Grade 1s over four days at Leopardstown, with Romeo Coolio, Salvator Mundi and July Flower the potential appetisers from the firm of Elliott, Mullins and De Bromhead in the Racing Post Novice Chase over 2m1f.
Subscribe to Racing Post+
The Racing Post will provide unmissable news, features, reports, analysis and top tipping over the Christmas period from the likes of Tom Segal, Paul Kealy, Keith Melrose, David Jennings and Johnny Dineen. Ensure you don't miss a thing by picking up the newspaper every day, or take advantage of our fantastic Festive Feast offer and get 20 per cent off a Racing Post+ online subscription for a whole year (with code FESTIVEFEAST25 at completion of your purchase).
Leopardstown takes over while Wales enjoys its day in the sun
As Sir Gino proved in 2024 the Wayward Lad Novices' Chase can prove there's plenty of life in the Kempton leftovers on day two of their meeting but, in most years, the real meat on December 27 is to be found at Leopardstown and Chepstow, with two of the season's biggest betting handicaps over fences taking place a mere ten minutes apart.
The Sam Thomas-trained Jubilee Express bids to go one better than 2024 in the Coral Welsh Grand National, having tuned up with an impressive trial win at the start of December, while the top of the handicap boasts plenty of quality this year, with the last two winners of the Irish Grand National, Intense Raffles and Haiti Couleurs, currently heading the weights, and 2023 Welsh National hero Nassalam lurking just below.
Should the Welsh National become a real slog then the winner will barely be back to unsaddle before the tapes go up at Leopardstown for the Paddy Power Chase, a race contested by the following April's Grand National winner in three of the last five years (although finishing positions of 2nd, 9th and 4th mean this is not quite the cheat code for Aintree you might think).
Marine Nationale v Majborough in the Grade 1 Paddy's Rewards Club Chase would be the headline race on most Saturdays during the winter, while Leopardstown also boasts the Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle over two miles.
Exclusive offer: get £50 in free bets this Christmas with Coral
Get £30 In Free Bets When You Bet £5 On Horse Racing
- Generous odds on horse racing
A Savills to savour
To Sunday and what, for many jumping purists, might be the pick of the entire festive season, as dual Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs could line up four days shy of his (official) tenth birthday in the Savills Chase, ready for revenge against his conqueror at Cheltenham in March, Inothewayurthinkin.
Ireland's seasonal highlight gets able support from the Christmas Hurdle, which features a rematch of a more recent vintage as Teahupoo and Ballyburn aim to reprise their humdinger in the Hatton's Grace, while the biggest race in Limerick's calendar, the Guiness 00 Faugheen Novice Chase features the second chasing start of the season's biggest talking horse to date, Final Demand.
I hope you've left room for more than a wafer-thin dessert. There will still be plenty to come when the sun sets next Sunday.
Exclusive offer: get £50 in free bets this Christmas with Paddy Power
Bet £10 On Horse Racing Get £50 In Free Bets
- Request custom bets on Twitter with #WhatOddsPaddy
Read these next:
Christmas racing guide 2025: day-by-day overview - plus ITV Racing schedule
Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.
Commercial notice: This article contains affiliate links. Offers are handpicked and come from operators our experts have first-hand experience of. Opening an account via one of these links will earn revenue for the Racing Post, which will be used to continue producing our award-winning coverage of horseracing and sports betting.
Published on inThe Lookahead
Last updated
CopyClick here to add us to your Google preferred sources or find out more here
- Progressive miler bids to hand Gosdens a Lockinge hat-trick after exciting three-year-olds take centre stage at the Dante festival
- Trial season swings into gear at Chester - while Ballydoyle big guns return ahead of Epsom's new £1 million pot
- The year's first Classics, top-class jumpers having their last hurrah, plus Royal Ascot trials - this week has it all
- How good is Havaila? There's one last chance for jumps fans to get some answers at Sandown on Saturday
- Moment of truth for Constitution Hill as the big boys of Flat racing wait for him at Newbury on Saturday
- Progressive miler bids to hand Gosdens a Lockinge hat-trick after exciting three-year-olds take centre stage at the Dante festival
- Trial season swings into gear at Chester - while Ballydoyle big guns return ahead of Epsom's new £1 million pot
- The year's first Classics, top-class jumpers having their last hurrah, plus Royal Ascot trials - this week has it all
- How good is Havaila? There's one last chance for jumps fans to get some answers at Sandown on Saturday
- Moment of truth for Constitution Hill as the big boys of Flat racing wait for him at Newbury on Saturday