Star Sports Brighton Festival of Racing 2026

The Star Sports Brighton Festival of Racing

The Star Sports Brighton Festival of Racing is a three-day summer racing meeting at Brighton Racecourse, title-sponsored by Star Sports. For 2026, the Festival continues the partnership that has made Brighton one of Star Sports' core sponsorship properties alongside the Greyhound Derby and Fontwell's National Spirit Hurdle.

When: early August 2026 (exact dates published by Brighton Racecourse closer to the meeting). Where: Brighton Racecourse, East Sussex — 1m6f course, right-handed, undulating, one of the tougher Flat tests in UK racing.

Brighton Racecourse is also Star Sports' home track — the firm is headquartered in Hove, East Sussex, just down the coast from the course. The relationship between Star Sports and Brighton Racecourse is genuinely local, not a generic corporate sponsorship arrangement.

The Star Sports Brighton Owners Series

In addition to the Festival, Star Sports launched the Star Sports Brighton Owners Series in April 2025 in collaboration with the Racehorse Owners Association. The Series rewards the owner who accumulates the most points across qualifying Brighton races during the Flat season:

• £10,000 prize to the winning owner
• £5,000 charity donation from Star Sports to the charity nominated by the winning owner

The Series runs across the Flat season and culminates at the Festival meeting. It is one of the more unusual UK bookmaker sponsorship structures — focused on owners rather than on the betting customer directly — and reflects Star Sports' wider investment in the racing industry ecosystem.

What the Festival offers for punters

The three-day Festival is less glamorous than Royal Ascot or Glorious Goodwood but delivers competitive summer Flat racing with a local-cup atmosphere. Key features for punters:

• Star Sports on-course pitch — Brighton is one of the core pitches in the Star Sports network; the trader operation has deep local history.
• Enhanced Star Boosts on Festival race days specifically — the editorial and commercial teams prioritise boosted prices on the Festival runners.
• Local form focus — Brighton is a specialist course; runners with a track record at the course significantly outperform newcomers. The Star Sports editorial operation (Simon Nott's blog, Starters Orders) highlights Brighton-specialist horses ahead of the Festival.
• Festival hospitality — Star Sports hospitality packages are available through the course, offering on-course access combined with the Festival experience.

Brighton and Star Sports' racing-first identity

The Brighton Festival sponsorship is consistent with Star Sports' long-term positioning as a genuinely racing-first bookmaker. The sponsorships the firm takes are not general "summer sport" brand sponsorships but specific racing and greyhound properties with deep commitment and local roots.

For punters who value the "independent British bookmaker with real racing commitments" proposition — as opposed to a corporate operator for whom racing is one product among many — the Brighton Festival is a tangible example of the relationship. Star Sports is not merely branded on a Brighton Festival banner; the firm's commercial and editorial operation engages with the meeting in depth.

How to use Star Sports at Brighton

For punters attending:

• Walk the Tatts ring — Star Sports is prominent and takes bets at scale on Festival races.
• Check the Starters Orders morning report on starsportsbet.co.uk ahead of each race day for Brighton-specific insights.
• Use the enhanced Star Boosts on Festival runners — these tend to be available during Festival days specifically.

See our full Star Sports review, or Ben Keith profile for the broader Star Sports narrative.