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Christmas Festival 2025: Dates, how to watch on TV, trainers and jockeys to watch

Winter jumps racing will reach its climax at the end of December, as the 2025 Christmas Festival gets underway at Kempton.

by
Callum Close
8 December 2025

Winter jumps racing will reach its climax at the end of December, as the 2025 Christmas Festival gets underway at Kempton.

Two days of elite National Hunt racing will see renowned jumpers go head-to-head in 12 races, including the King George VI Chase.

Ran on Boxing Day, the race is the feature race of the meeting at which three Grade One contests are held.

Races are sure to be contested by potential Cheltenham Festival protagonists, as the 2025 National Hunt season continues.

After all the festivities are done with, Kempton Park racecourse is sure to stage some of the finest action in racing.

Here is everything that you need to know about the 2025 Christmas Festival, as the eyes of the racing world gaze upon Surrey once more.

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When is the 2025 Christmas Festival?

Day one of the meeting kicks off on Boxing Day – December, 26 – with a six-race card in which three Grade One races will feature.

The Ladbrokes Best Odds Guaranteed On Racing Novices’ Limited Handicap Steeple Chase is the first race of the festival; it is due off at 12:45pm.

It precedes the running of all three Grade One contests at the event, the first of which is the Ladbrokes Kauto Star Novices’ Steeple Chase.

The Ladbrokes Christmas Hurdle Race will run at 1:55pm, before the meeting’s showpiece race begins at 2:30pm – the Ladbrokes King George VI Steeple Chase.

The last two races are a maiden race and a handicap, both ran over hurdles, bringing an end to Day One of the meeting.

December 27 will begin with a hurdles race for juveniles, before a Handicap hurdle will run – it is due off at 1:20pm.

Day two’s feature race is the (Grade Two) Desert Orchid Handicap Steeple Chase; it follows the running of the only other Graded race at the meeting – the Ladbrokes Wayward Lad Novices’ Steeple Chase.

Those races are due off at 1:55pm and 2:30pm, before two Handicap contests bring an end to the two-day festival.

Trainers to watch

Dan Skelton

Gary and Josh Moore are trainers in brilliant form at the moment, having seen 13 of their last 18 horses place – with six of them winning.

James Owen and Joe Tizzard (fourth and fifth in the British Trainers’ Championship) both represent yards that are in fine form too; however, it is Dan Skelton who is the current leader.

Skelton led the Championship for most of last season, before being pipped to the title by Willie Mullins.

So far this campaign, he has trained 83 winners and leads the Championship by almost one million pounds in prize money.

Over the last five seasons, Skelton has had 19 winners at Kempton, but his strike rate is only 14%.

Nicky Henderson

Mullins himself will be a force to be reckoned with, should he choose to send a challenger over the Irish Sea.

He has enjoyed a winter in which he won the Breeders’ Cup Turf with 25/1 shot Ethical Diamond, before returning to this side of the Atlantic to begin his yard’s seasonal work.

For course form, there is nowhere else to look but at Nicky Henderson, who has trained more winners than any other trainer at Kempton.

He has trained the winners in 307 races at the course and boasts a 25% win rate, better than any other trainer within the top five course trainers.

Paul Nicholls

Paul Nicholls (currently third in this season’s Trainers’ Championship) trails him with 182 winners, whilst the pair also fill the same two positions when looking at the last five seasons.

The former has trained 42 winners at Kempton, whilst Nicholls has had 25 winners.

Other trainers to note include Olly Murphy – who is second to Skelton in the Championship standings – as well as Ben Pauling and Fergal O’Brien.

Pauling’s yard is in fine form, whilst O’Brien has seen 19% of his Kempton runners win over the last five seasons – more than both Nicholls and Skelton.

Jockeys to watch

Nico De Boinville

Whenever there is a Henderson-trained winner, it is usually Nico De Boinville in the saddle.

De Boinville has ridden 31 winners at Kempton over the last five seasons (27% win rate), which is more than any other jockey.

Harry Cobden has ridden 10 fewer winners within the same time period and has a current strike rate of 25% in his rides across Britain this season.

Ben — Jonbon ridden by Nico de Boinville

Sean Bowen

His lethal partnership with Nicholls is almost certain to raise its head at some point, though it is Sean Bowen who is the jockey who cannot be stopped at the moment.

He leads the British Jockeys’ Championship by 92 winners, having ridden 153 winners so far this campaign, as he bids to defend his Champion Jockey title.

Eighteen of his last 27 rides have been placed, with seven of those rides winning – contributing to a seasonal strike rate of 26%.

Harry Skelton

Both Harry Skelton and Sean’s brother James Bowen have ridden 61 winners this season; they are second and third in the Jockeys’ Championship standings.

Skelton has ridden 12 winners at Kempton over the last five seasons, bettered by Tom Cannon and Ben Jones – who have 13 winners – the latter has a remarkable course strike rate of 37% over the same time period.

Brian Hughes and Ciaran Gethings are also in form, whilst Gavin Sheehan and Sam Twiston-Davies round out the top five in the British Jockeys’ Championship.