Thomas Richard Dunwoody MBE is a retired British National Hunt jockey. He was a three-time British Champion Jockey. He was the only jockey of his generation to win the Grand National, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle.
Kempton Park Racecourse is a horse racing track together with a licensed entertainment and conference venue in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey, England, near the border with Greater London; it is 16 miles south-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.
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, 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.
The Tingle Creek 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 Sandown Park over a distance of about 2 miles, and during its running there are thirteen fences to be jumped. The race is scheduled to take place each year in early December.
The Formby Novices' Hurdle is a Grade 1 National Hunt hurdle race in Great Britain which is open to horses aged three years or older. It is run at Aintree over a distance of about 2 miles and half a furlong, and during its running there are eight hurdles to be jumped. The race is for novice hurdlers, and it is scheduled to take place each year in December. From 2011 to 2018 the race was sponsored by online casino 32Red and was run as the 32Red Hurdle between 2011 and 2013. Since 2023 it has been sponsored by William Hill
The Clarence House Chase is a Grade 1 National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged five years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of about 2 miles and 1 furlong, and during its running there are thirteen fences to be jumped. The race is scheduled to take place each year in January.
Kauto Star was a French-bred National Hunt champion racehorse trained by Paul Nicholls in Somerset and owned by Clive Smith. He was known for his versatility and longevity, being the only horse ever to be top rated over 2 miles, 2.5 miles and 3 miles in the same season. He is also the first horse ever to win a grade 1 race in 6 consecutive seasons - he then added 2 more the following season to make it 7. His Racing Post rating of 192 is the highest ever awarded to a National Hunt horse. He won the Cheltenham Gold Cup twice, in 2007 and 2009, becoming the first horse to regain the cup, beating Denman by thirteen lengths in 2009, after losing it in 2008 by seven lengths behind Denman. He tried for three more years to win the race again, but the best placing he could achieve was in 2011, coming third behind Long Run. He also won the King George VI Chase a record five times. He was one of the most successful steeplechasers of modern era finishing his racing career with a National Hunt record of £3,775,883 in earnings, which consisted of £2,375,883 in race prize money, £1,000,000 bonus for the completion of the 2006/2007 Stayers Chase Triple Crown and also a £400,000 reward for heading the BHA Table of Merit in the same 2006/2007 season.
The Desert Orchid Chase is a Grade 2 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 2 miles, and during its running there are twelve fences to be jumped. The race is scheduled to take place each year in late December during the course's Christmas Festival.
The Denman Chase is a Grade 2 National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged five years or older. It is run at Newbury over a distance of about 2 miles and 7½ furlongs, and during its running there are eighteen fences to be jumped. The race is scheduled to take place each year in February.
The Pendil Novices' Chase is a Grade 2 National Hunt steeplechase in Great Britain which is open to horses aged five years or older. It is run at Kempton Park over a distance of about 2 miles and 4+1⁄2 furlongs, and during its running there are sixteen fences to be jumped. The race is for novice chasers, and it is scheduled to take place each year in late February.
Paul Frank Nicholls is a British National Hunt horse trainer with stables at Ditcheat, Somerset. A relatively successful jump jockey, Nicholls has become the leading National Hunt trainer of his generation, finishing the 2007–08 season with 155 winners and a record £4 million in prize money. As of April 2023, he has trained over 3,500 winners, won the 2012 Grand National, four Cheltenham Gold Cups and has been crowned British jump racing Champion Trainer fourteen times.
Nicholas John Henderson is a British racehorse trainer. He has been British jump racing Champion Trainer six times.
Michael Fitzgerald is a retired Irish National Hunt jockey and current television racing pundit. Fitzgerald rode for the majority of his career in Great Britain and less often Ireland.
The Wayward Lad Novices' Chase is a Grade 2 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 2 miles, and during its running there are twelve fences to be jumped. The race is for novice chasers, and it is scheduled to take place each year in late December during the course's Christmas Festival.
Bacchanal was an Irish-bred, British-trained Thoroughbred racehorse who competed in National Hunt racing. He was lightly-raced, winning ten of his twenty races between January 1999 and January 2003. As a novice hurdler he won two of his four races and in the following season he won the Gerry Feilden Hurdle before recording his biggest win in the Stayers' Hurdle. He later developed into a top class steeplechaser, winning the Feltham Novices' Chase, Reynoldstown Novices' Chase and Aon Chase and twice finishing third in the King George VI Chase. He returned to hurdles to win the Long Distance Hurdle in 2002, but was killed in a fall at Cheltenham in January 2003.
Coneygree is a retired British Thoroughbred racehorse who competed in National Hunt races. In a career which ran from November 2010 to February 2019 he ran in eighteen races, winning nine times. In March 2015, he became the first novice chaser to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup for more than forty years. His subsequent career was hampered by injury and he did not run again in the Cheltenham Gold Cup after winning it.
Lizzie Kelly is a retired British jockey who participated in National Hunt racing.
Thistlecrack is a British Thoroughbred racehorse who competes in National Hunt races. Unraced until he was five years old, he recorded his first win in a National Hunt Flat race in 2014. In the 2014/15 National Hunt season he won two minor hurdle races before improving when tried over long distances and winning the Grade 1 Sefton Novices' Hurdle. In the following season he established himself as the best staying hurdler in Britain with wins in the Long Distance Hurdle, Long Walk Hurdle, Cleeve Hurdle, World Hurdle and Liverpool Hurdle. When switched to steeplechasing in the following season he made an immediate impact, taking the Worcester Novices' Chase before beating more experienced horses in the King George VI Chase. His later career was beset by injury problems and he never won again, being retired from racing in March 2021 at the age of thirteen.
Bryony Frost is an English National Hunt jockey from Buckfastleigh, Devon. In 2019 she became the first female jockey to win a Grade 1 race at the Cheltenham Festival.
