Founder & Editor · Last reviewed 2026-10-09
The festival in one screen
The Leopardstown Christmas Festival starts on Saturday 26 December 2026 and runs for four days, from St Stephen's Day to 29 December, with the Savills Chase on the third day. This page is where our tips for the meeting live: what has won the Savills Chase, which Grade 1 falls on which day, how to approach small-field championship races, and where to bet once the runners are known.
In this guide
- How the week breaks down
- What wins the Savills Chase
- How to bet a Christmas Grade 1
- Where to bet
- Frequently asked questions
For the meeting as a whole, see the Leopardstown Christmas Festival hub. Our Christmas Festival guide covers tickets, getting there and the history of each race. In Britain, the King George VI Chase is run at Kempton on the same St Stephen's Day.
A word on what this page is and is not. This far out there are no declared runners, so there are no named selections here. Our model prices each day's card once its runners are declared, never days ahead, so the AI Lab's daily card carries its estimated chance beside every Leopardstown runner on the day itself, and the track record shows how those estimates have done, losers included. The trends below narrow a field. They are not a forecast.
Where to Bet
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Four days, seven Grade 1s: how the week breaks down
Leopardstown names each of the four days after its feature. The course says there are seven Grade 1 races across the week; these are the ones its day pages name, in order:
| Day | Date | Grade 1 races |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | 26 December | Racing Post Novice Chase |
| Day 2 | 27 December | Paddy's Rewards Club Chase (the Paddy Power Chase day feature) and the Future Champions Novice Hurdle |
| Day 3 | 28 December | Savills Chase and the Christmas Hurdle |
| Day 4 | 29 December | December Hurdle, sponsored as the Matheson Hurdle |
The full 2026 programme, with every race and its conditions, is published closer to the meeting. The seventh Grade 1 has varied from year to year as Horse Racing Ireland has reshaped the novice programme, so check the card before you plan a bet around it.
What each day asks
- The novices (26 and 27 December). The Racing Post Novice Chase is about two miles and a furlong, and the Future Champions is a two-mile novice hurdle. Both are early tests of horses with little form at this level, so the race often shows who is better than their record, rather than confirming who already is.
- The two-mile chasers (27 December). Paddy's Rewards Club Chase is about two miles and a furlong. Solness won it in 2024 at 28/1 and again in 2025 at 8/1, a reminder that a small Grade 1 field is not always a procession.
- Savills Chase day (28 December). The three-mile championship chase, covered below, shares the card with the Christmas Hurdle, a staying hurdle of nearly three miles.
- The two-mile hurdlers (29 December). Willie Mullins has a record eleven wins in the December Hurdle, and Lossiemouth won it in 2025 as the 4/6 favourite.
What wins the Savills Chase
The Savills Chase is a Grade 1 chase over 3m and seventeen fences, for horses aged five and over. It has been run over three miles since 1992, when it was the Ericsson Chase; it was the Lexus Chase from 2004 to 2016 and has carried the Savills name since 2018. It is Ireland's midwinter championship test for staying chasers.
The trends
Winning age
- 6yo
- 40%
- 7yo
- 30%
- 8yo
- 30%
Age known for 10 of 10 winners (2016–2025)
Market
- Started favourite
- 30%
- Won at 10/1 or bigger
- 0%
- Won at 5/1 or shorter
- 30%
Starting price known for 10 of 10 winners (2016–2025)
Trainers & jockeys
- Most successful trainer
- Gordon Elliott (4)
- Most successful jockey
- Jack Kennedy (3)
10 runnings (2016–2025)
The profile to look for
- Age six to eight. Every winner from 2016 to 2025 was six, seven or eight years old. An older horse is opposing the pattern of the last ten runnings.
- A big Irish yard. Gordon Elliott trained four of those ten winners, Willie Mullins three and Noel Meade two. Henry de Bromhead had the other, A Plus Tard in 2020.
- Do not lean on the favourite. The favourite won three of the ten. Galopin Des Champs won in 2023 and 2024, then finished third as the 6/5 favourite in 2025, when Affordale Fury won at 7/1.
What it leads to
The Savills is the first of two big Leopardstown tests for the staying chasers this winter. Seven of the twelve Irish Gold Cup winners in one long-running trends set came via the Savills, so watch the beaten horses as well as the winner when you look ahead to the Dublin Racing Festival at the end of January.
Savills Chase: Recent Winners
Grade 1 · 3m · 5yo+ · Leopardstown · Late December (28 December in every year 2016 to 2025)
| Year | Winner | Age | SP | Jockey | Trainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Affordale Fury | 7 | 7/1 | Sam Ewing | Noel Meade |
| 2024 | Galopin Des Champs | 8 | 5/6f | Paul Townend | Willie Mullins |
| 2023 | Galopin Des Champs | 7 | 6/4f | Paul Townend | Willie Mullins |
| 2022 | Conflated | 8 | 2/1f | Jack Kennedy | Gordon Elliott |
| 2021 | Galvin | 7 | 7/1 | Davy Russell | Gordon Elliott |
| 2020 | A Plus Tard | 6 | 15/2 | Darragh O'Keeffe | Henry de Bromhead |
| 2019 | Delta Work | 6 | 11/2 | Jack Kennedy | Gordon Elliott |
| 2018 | Kemboy | 6 | 8/1 | David Mullins | Willie Mullins |
| 2017 | Road To Respect | 6 | 8/1 | Sean Flanagan | Noel Meade |
| 2016 | Outlander | 8 | 6/1 | Jack Kennedy | Gordon Elliott |
Trends
- The returned favourite won 3 of the 10 runnings from 2016 to 2025 (Conflated 2022, Galopin Des Champs 2023 and 2024).
- Gordon Elliott trained four of the ten winners from 2016 to 2025, Willie Mullins three, Noel Meade two and Henry de Bromhead one.
- Every winner from 2016 to 2025 was aged six, seven or eight.
- Jack Kennedy rode three of the ten winners from 2016 to 2025 (Outlander, Delta Work, Conflated).
- Galopin Des Champs won in 2023 and 2024, then finished third as the 6/5 favourite in 2025.
- Field sizes ran from 7 to 14 runners in 2016 to 2025.
Source-verified from official records. Last checked 2026-10-09.
How to bet a Christmas Grade 1
Small fields, short prices
Most of the week's Grade 1s draw small fields: the Savills Chase had seven to fourteen runners from 2016 to 2025. In a race that size the favourite is often short, and the price you take can move a long way in the last hour. That is why the terms you bet on matter as much as the horse.
Read the going
Leopardstown drains well, and the winter going is usually soft to yielding. Heavy rain can still change things quickly: the Saturday card of the 2026 Dublin Racing Festival was abandoned after a downpour. Check the going on the morning of each day, and give more weight to horses with form on soft ground if it has rained.
Course form counts
Leopardstown is a left-handed track with a stiff uphill finish, and the three fences close together in the back straight can catch out a less fluent jumper. A horse that has already run well round here has shown it can handle both.
Know what you are paying
Every price includes the bookmaker's margin. What betting really costs shows how big that margin is across British racing. It does not mean you cannot win a bet, only that over many bets the margin works against you.
A simple way in
- Start from the trends above: age, yard and course form.
- Read the declared field and the going once both are known.
- Back fewer horses at better terms rather than covering half the field.
- Set a stake for all four days before St Stephen's Day and stick to it.
Where to bet
Where to bet on the festival
Our Leopardstown Christmas Festival offers page compares the deals for the meeting, and lists only bookmakers found on the Irish register. For the Christmas Grade 1s, two terms count for more than the size of a welcome bonus:
- Best odds guaranteed. Prices in small Grade 1 fields move in the last hour before the off. A BOG bookmaker pays the starting price if it is bigger than the price you took.
- Free bets and their terms. Check the minimum odds and the expiry before you claim. Our free bet offers page compares what our verified partners offer.
For a wider comparison, see the best bookmakers for horse racing.
After the festival
Every race's result is on our racing results page the same evening, and the festival hub carries the week's coverage.
Responsible note
Four days of racing over Christmas is easy to overcommit to. Decide a budget before St Stephen's Day and treat any free bet as a bonus on a bet you would have made anyway, not a reason to bet bigger. Over time the odds favour the bookmaker, however well you know the horses. If betting stops being fun, BeGambleAware offers free, confidential support on 0808 8020 133. 18+, please gamble responsibly.
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