Grade 1 race | |
Location | Kempton Park, Sunbury, England |
---|---|
Race type | Hurdle race |
Sponsor | Ladbrokes |
Website | Kempton Park |
Race information | |
Distance | 2 miles (3,219 metres) |
Surface | Turf |
Track | Right-handed |
Qualification | Four-years-old and up |
Weight | 11 st 10 lb Allowances 7 lb for fillies and mares |
Purse | £130,000 (2024) 1st: £74,035 |
2024 | ||
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Constitution Hill | Lossiemouth | Burdett Road |
Previous years | ||
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2023 | ||
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Constitution Hill | Rubaud | First Street |
2022 | ||
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Constitution Hill | Epatante | Highway One O Two |
2021 | ||
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Epatante | Glory And Fortune | Soaring Glory |
1990-1987 | ||
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1990 | ||
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Fidway | Sybillin | Deep Sensation |
1989 | ||
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Kribensis | Osric | Floyd |
1988 | ||
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Kribensis | Floyd | Wishlon |
1987 | ||
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Osric | Aldino | Nohalmdun |
The Christmas Hurdle is a Grade 1 National Hunt hurdle race in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Kempton Park over a distance of about 2 miles (3,219 metres), and during its running there are eight hurdles to be jumped. The race is the second leg of the Triple Crown of Hurdling and is scheduled to take place each year during the King George VI Chase meeting on Boxing Day.
During the 1960s Kempton staged a 2-mile handicap race on Boxing Day called the Kempton Park Handicap Hurdle. Its winners included Salmon Spray and Saucy Kit – both subsequent winners of the Champion Hurdle. The race was abandoned in 1967 and 1968, and it returned in the guise of the Christmas Hurdle in 1969.
Six winners of the race in its present format have gone on to victory in the Champion Hurdle. The first was Lanzarote, the winner of the latter event in 1974, and the others are Dawn Run (1983–84), Kribensis (1989–90), Faugheen (2014–15), Epatante (2019–20) and Constitution Hill (2022–23).
Most successful horse since 1969 (3 wins):
Leading jockey since 1969 (5 wins):
Leading trainer since 1969 (13 wins):
Kempton Park Racecourse is a horse racing track together with a licensed entertainment and conference venue in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, England, on the border with Greater London; it is 13 miles west of Charing Cross in central London. The site has 210 acres of flat grassland surrounded by woodland with two lakes in its centre. Its entrance borders Kempton Park railway station which was created for racegoers on a branch line from London Waterloo, via Clapham Junction.
The King George VI Chase is a Grade 1 National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged four years or older. It is run at Kempton Park over a distance of about 3 miles, and during its running there are eighteen fences to be jumped. The race is scheduled to take place each year on 26 December, and features as part of the course's Christmas Festival.
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