When is the Irish Champions Festival 2026?

Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September 2026, across two courses. The Irish Champion Stakes and the Matron Stakes are at Leopardstown on the Saturday; the Irish St Leger and the National Stakes are at the Curragh on the Sunday.

Which bookmakers run Best Odds Guaranteed on Irish racing?

Of the firms we hold an affiliate arrangement with, QuinnBet, BetGoodwin, LiveScore Bet and HighBet all apply Best Odds Guaranteed to Irish racing as well as British. Star Sports withdrew Best Odds Guaranteed in December 2024 and does not offer it on either. The detail differs: QuinnBet applies it from 10am on raceday capped at £150 a bet with ante-post excluded, BetGoodwin runs to a £1,000 ceiling, and LiveScore Bet requires you to have staked over £25 in the previous seven days before you qualify at all. Always check the operator's own terms, because BOG coverage on Irish racing is the concession most likely to differ from what a firm advertises for British racing.

Does the Irish Champions Festival clash with the St Leger?

Yes. Doncaster's St Leger Festival runs from Thursday 10 to Sunday 13 September 2026, so the final two days overlap. Doncaster's St Leger Stakes is on the Saturday, the same day as the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown. If you are betting both meetings, an account that treats UK and Irish racing on the same terms saves the most bother.

Are there separate offers for the Curragh day?

Not usually as distinct welcome offers. Most operators run one promotion across the weekend rather than a Leopardstown offer and a Curragh offer, though race-specific promotions such as extra places or price boosts are announced per card, generally in the few days before the meeting. Check the operator's promotions page from the start of that week.

What should I look for beyond the free bet?

Price protection and each-way terms. Six Group 1s in two days means short-priced favourites whose prices move through the morning, so Best Odds Guaranteed on Irish racing is worth more across a weekend than a one-off free bet. Where the fields are bigger, on the handicaps supporting the Group 1 cards, extra places matter more than the win price.

Irish Champions Festival Offers: 12-13 September

The Irish Champions Festival runs on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September 2026, across two courses: the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown on the Saturday, the Irish St Leger at the Curragh on the Sunday. Six Group 1s and over five million euro in prize money across the weekend, and the climax of the Irish flat season.

The table below is the quick answer: every row is a welcome offer we have checked against the operator's own terms, with the conditions that decide whether you can actually claim it.

One thing shapes this weekend more than the free bets do. Most UK-licensed bookmakers apply Best Odds Guaranteed to British racing only. On a card at Leopardstown or the Curragh, a firm that runs BOG on Irish racing too is protecting your price all weekend, while a firm that does not is offering you nothing once the market moves. That distinction matters more here than at any British meeting, and it is the first thing worth checking before you open an account for it.

There is a second complication worth planning around: the Irish Champions Festival overlaps the St Leger Festival at Doncaster, which runs 10 to 13 September. Saturday 12 September carries the Irish Champion Stakes and Sunday 13th the Irish St Leger, while Doncaster's own St Leger runs on the Saturday. If you are betting both, the accounts that cover UK and Irish racing on the same concessions save you juggling.

18+. New customers only unless stated. Significant terms apply to every offer on this page. Bet responsibly: BeGambleAware.org.

Irish Champions Festival offers, ranked

Our verified affiliate partners, ranked by our independent review score. Every offer checked against the operator's own terms.

Betfred4.2Top pick
Best Odds Guaranteed
Bet £10 Get £50 in Free Bets
Code BETFRED50
Claim offer
New customers only, 18+. Register and deposit with a Debit Card, then bet £10+ at Evens (2.0)+ on Sports, settled within 7 days. £30 Sports + £20 Acca free bets within 24 hours of settlement, 7-day expiry. Eligibility and payment exclusions apply. Full T&Cs.
QuinnBet4.1
Best Odds Guaranteed
Get 50% Back as a Free Bet up to £25
Claim offer
New UK 18+. 50% of first-bet stake back as a free bet, max £25. Min deposit £10. Full T&Cs.
Star Sports3.5
Bet £40 Get £20 in Free Bets
Code BET40GET20
Claim offer
New UK 18+. Code BET40GET20: min £40 bet at Evens. 2 × £10 free bets (2nd after 24h), min odds 4/1, expire 24h after credit. Full T&Cs.
LiveScore Bet3.5
Best Odds Guaranteed
Bet £10 Get £30 in Free Bets
Claim offer
New UK 18+. £10 qualifying bet at 1/2 (1.50)+, settled within 14 days. £30 in free bets, stake not returned, 7-day expiry. No promo code needed. Full T&Cs.

See all 8 welcome offers, ranked

Below is what each partner brings to a weekend of Irish Group 1 racing. The welcome offer gets you through the door; whether the firm covers Irish racing on its standing concessions is what decides the weekend.

QuinnBet: 50% Back as a Free Bet up to £25

Welcome offer: 50% of your first-day net losses refunded as a free bet, capped at £25. New UK customers, 18+. Deposit and place a first bet of £10 or more on any sport at minimum odds of evens (2.00), then place at least two further bets on different events, each worth at least 50% of your largest bet, at evens or greater. Verified 2 August 2026.

The Irish Champions angle: the natural fit for this weekend. QuinnBet is Irish-rooted, sponsors meetings at Leopardstown itself, and holds Best Odds Guaranteed on both UK and Irish racing, applied from 10am on the day of the race with the extra winnings capped at £150 per bet. No BOG on ante-post, the industry-standard carve-out, which is worth knowing if you are backing something for the Irish Champion Stakes in the fortnight beforehand. A free bet if your selection finishes second to the SP favourite sits alongside it, though that one is narrower than it sounds: it needs at least six runners, does not apply when the favourite goes off at 6/4 or shorter, and is capped at £10 a day. See our QuinnBet sign-up offer guide and QuinnBet review.

BetGoodwin: Bet £10 Get £15 in Free Bets (code WELCOME15)

Welcome offer: promo code WELCOME15, entered under My Bonuses after registering. A first qualifying bet of at least £10 from your cash balance at evens (2.0) or greater within 7 days returns £15 in free bets as 3 x £5 tokens with set uses, expiring after 7 days. Verified 2 August 2026.

The Irish Champions angle: the smallest headline here, carried by the concessions behind it. Best Odds Guaranteed runs on UK and Irish horse racing up to £1,000 a bet, which is the highest ceiling among our partners, and Double Result pays on both the first past the post and the official result on any UK or Irish race. See our BetGoodwin review.

LiveScore Bet: Bet £10 Get £30 in Free Bets

Welcome offer: a £10 qualifying single at 1/2 (1.50) or bigger returns £30 in free bets, no promo code. The credit is split £20 for the sportsbook and £10 for Bet Builder only, which does not cover horse racing. Free bets must be accepted within 7 days and expire 7 days after acceptance. Verified 2 August 2026.

The Irish Champions angle: read it as a £20 racing offer, not £30. Best Odds Guaranteed covers UK and Irish racing from 10am, win and each-way, but you only qualify once you have staked over £25 in the previous seven days, on a rolling basis. For a two-day weekend that condition is a real one: a first-time account will not have the staking history to trigger it. See our LiveScore Bet review.

HighBet: Bet £10 Get £30 in Free Bets, up to £60

Welcome offer: opt in, deposit £10+ by debit card and place a £10 qualifying bet at 1/1 (2.0) or bigger within 7 days; Bet Builder and Cash Out bets do not qualify. The £30 arrives as three £10 Kick Off Tokens, each an accumulator needing 4+ selections at minimum combined odds of 4.0. Each one that wins unlocks a further £10 token (Pro, then Elite, then Champion), up to £60 in total, and those cascade tokens carry no minimum odds and no minimum number of selections. Verified 15 August 2026.

The Irish Champions angle: none of the opening £30 backs a single Group 1 runner, because all three Kick Off Tokens are 4+ leg accas. Win one and the token that follows has no restrictions at all, which is the part that can go on a horse. HighBet's standing concessions are strong for a small book: Best Odds Guaranteed, Non-Runner Money Back and First Past the Post. See our HighBet review.

Star Sports: Bet £40 Get £20 in Free Bets (code BET40GET20)

Welcome offer: a £40 qualifying bet at evens (2.0) or bigger returns 2 x £10 free bets, the first on settlement and the second 24 hours later. Free bets must be used at minimum odds of 4/1 (5.0) and expire 24 hours after credit. Verified 28 July 2026.

The Irish Champions angle: Star Sports no longer runs Best Odds Guaranteed, which costs more at a meeting like this one than the free bet is worth. What it has instead is a staffed phone trader desk and deep ante-post books, which is how you get a size on an Irish Champion Stakes price weeks out that a risk engine would decline. See our Star Sports review.

What about Bet365, William Hill, Paddy Power, Ladbrokes and Coral? They all run promotions around the Irish Champions weekend, usually extra places and price boosts on the Group 1s, confirmed in the week beforehand. We are not affiliates of any of them and do not publish offer terms we have not verified against the operator's own pages, so check their promotions pages directly. Worth knowing on this weekend specifically: William Hill's Best Odds Guaranteed is invite-only, per its own help pages, so do not assume you have it.

Betting the whole weekend? The St Leger Festival offers page covers Doncaster, which overlaps this meeting from 10 to 13 September, and our best free bet offers comparison ranks the wider market.

Our partner pick for the weekend: QuinnBet

Two days of Irish Group 1 racing reward the firm that treats Irish racing as a first-class market rather than an add-on. QuinnBet holds Best Odds Guaranteed on both sides of the Irish Sea from 10am on raceday, sponsors at Leopardstown, and its welcome offer is a straight 50% of first-day losses back rather than a number wrapped in accumulator conditions. On raw headline size it is not the biggest here; on a weekend where prices shorten through each morning, price protection is worth more than the headline.

Responsible gambling: an offer is only worth having on a bet you would have made anyway. Set a budget for the weekend before it starts, never chase a losing day, and read the terms on every promotion. 18+, BeGambleAware.org.

Irish Champions Festival 2026 Offers: Free Bets & Best Odds

Irish Champions Festival Betting Offers

The Offers, Ranked