When does the Christmas Hurdle take place?

The Christmas Hurdle, currently sponsored by Ladbrokes, is a Grade 1 contest open to horses aged foru years and upwards and run over 2 miles at Kempton Park on Boxing Day. The race was first run, in its current guise, in 1969 and, alongside the King George VI Chase, which is run on the same day, is firmly established as a festive highlight at the Sunbury-on-Thames course. Indeed, the Christmas Hurdle is one of the most significant races of the season and along with the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle and the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham forms the so-called ‘Triple Crown of Hurdling’.

A total of eight horses have won the Christmas Hurdle twice, including Kribensis, Binocular, Faugheen and Epatante, all of whom also won the Champion Hurdle. Nicky Henderson, trainer of Binocular (2010, 2011) and Epatante (2019, 2021), is far and away the most successful trainer in the history of the Christmas Hurdle, having also saddled Geos (2000), Landing Light (2001), Darlan (2012), My Tent Or Yours (2013), Buveur D’Air (2017) and Verdana Blue (2018) for a total of 10 wins in all.

The 2022 renewal of the Christmas Hurdle is scheduled, as usual, at 2.25pm on Monday, December 26, as part of a six-race card on the first day of the Ladbrokes Christmas Festival. As of early September, several months ahead of time, no ante-post prices for the Christmas Hurdle are available. However, it is reasonable to expect that the Nicky Henderson will hold a formidable hand. His facile Supreme Novices’ Hurdle winner, Constitution Hill, for example, is a prohibitive 1/3 in the ante-post lists for the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle the previous month, with Epatante installed as 5/1 second favourite for that race. In the absence of the indomitable Honeysuckle, another win for the Master of Seven Barrows looks a distinct possibility.