Major Horse Races in the UK 2026/27: Big-Race Calendar, Dates and Previews

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By The Guv'nor · Last updated October 2026

The major horse races in the UK are the Cheltenham Festival (16 to 19 March 2027), the Grand National (Saturday 10 April 2027), the Derby (Saturday 5 June 2027) and Royal Ascot (15 to 19 June 2027), plus the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day 2026. All dates checked with the racecourses on 5 October 2026.

This weekend's big races (updated every Monday)

Week of Tuesday 6 to Sunday 11 October 2026. Preview notes only, built from public facts: history, race conditions and what the courses themselves say. My actual big race tips go to Winners Club members, not on this page.

The midweek cards are bread-and-butter stuff, so everything worth talking about this week is packed into Friday to Sunday.

Friday 9 to Sunday 11 October: Chepstow, Welsh Racing Festival

Three days of jump racing to get the Welsh season going. Chepstow says the Welsh Champion Hurdle is normally the Sunday highlight but opens the festival on the Friday this year. The 2025 running went to Celtic Dino, the 6/4 favourite, who won under top weight. Friday also has the Grade 2 Persian War Novices' Hurdle.

Saturday's feature is the Silver Trophy, a £75,000 handicap hurdle over two and a half miles, first run in 1989. According to the course, no horse has won it twice. Past winners include Bradbury Star and Don't Push It, who later won the Grand National.

Friday 9 and Saturday 10 October: Newmarket, Future Champions Festival

Newmarket says there are nine Group races across the two days. Friday's feature is the Group 1 Fillies' Mile for two-year-old fillies. Saturday has the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes for two-year-olds over seven furlongs (about 1,400 metres), whose roll of honour includes Frankel (2010), Dawn Approach (2012), Churchill (2016) and St Mark's Basilica (2020).

Saturday also has the Cesarewitch, a handicap over two miles and two furlongs and the second leg of the autumn double after the Cambridgeshire. Newmarket says jumps yards tend to do well in it, and Willie Mullins won three runnings in a row, 2018 to 2020. That's a trend worth checking against the final field.

Friday 9 and Saturday 10 October: York, the October meeting

Saturday is Sky Bet Sprint Trophy day, and it's York's last fixture of 2026.

Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October: Naas, the Flat season finale

Naas calls it the October Weekend and its Flat season finale. Saturday's card has the Listed RFL Steels Stakes over six furlongs, worth €55,000 this year, plus the Birdcatcher Premier Nursery, and Sunday's feature is the Irish EBF Auction Series final. If you prefer jumpers, Fairyhouse has its Return of the Jumps card on the Saturday.

Sunday 11 October: Goodwood, Season Finale

Goodwood's last meeting of the year. The course says the card has several handicaps and three valuable races for two-year-olds, and the first race is for jump jockeys, so you get to see the National Hunt weighing room having a go on the Flat.

Going: check each course's official going report on the morning, because it can change a lot at this time of year.

Coming up: big meetings to mid-December

Major horse races in the UK and Ireland: the 2026/27 calendar

This is the jumps racing calendar for 2026/27 (the National Hunt calendar, if you're old school) plus the first half of the 2027 Flat, so the main UK horse racing festivals of 2027, up to Royal Ascot, sit in one table. Dates come from each racecourse's own fixture or event page, checked on 5 October 2026. Where a course hasn't published a date yet, the table says so.

"Weekly notes" means the race is covered in the Monday module above in the week it's run, rather than on a page of its own.

Jumps season: November to April

For the shape of the winter, the yards in form and the races that matter, start with my jumps season preview. The Betfair Chase at Haydock is billed by the course as the first Grade 1 chase of the season, and Kauto Star used it as a stepping stone to the Festival.

Christmas: Kempton and Chepstow

Boxing Day falls on a Saturday this year, so the King George VI Chase preview covers Kempton's big day on 26 December (the Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle is also at that meeting). Chepstow's Welsh Grand National guide follows on Monday 28 December, a £170,000 staying handicap chase and the sort of big field where each-way value comes into it.

The Cheltenham Festival, 16 to 19 March 2027

Four days in March and the week most punters plan their whole winter around. The Cheltenham Festival preview is the race-by-race hub. The two championship races get their own pages: the Champion Hurdle on the Tuesday and the Cheltenham Gold Cup on the Friday. For the numbers, the Festival trends page tests which trends actually hold up, and the Festival handicaps guide looks at marks and weights, which is where outsiders tend to live.

Aintree and the Nationals

The Grand National preview covers Aintree on Saturday 10 April 2027, and the Grand National trends page asks which of the old rules still work in the modern race. A week later, the Scottish Grand National guide covers Ayr on 17 April. The Midlands National (Uttoxeter, 20 March) and the bet365 Gold Cup (Sandown, 24 April) don't get pages of their own; they go in the weekly notes.

Irish festivals worth knowing

Plenty of the jumps season's best form comes out of Ireland, so these four matter even if you only bet on British racing. My Irish racing tips hub has the lot, and each festival has its own guide:

• Leopardstown Christmas Festival: 26 to 29 December 2026, four days.
• Dublin Racing Festival: 30 and 31 January 2027, the big Irish trial ground before Cheltenham.
• Irish Grand National: Easter Monday, 29 March 2027, at Fairyhouse.
• Punchestown Festival: 27 April to 1 May 2027, five days of top-class jumps racing.

Flat season 2027: from the Lincoln to Royal Ascot

Doncaster bills the Lincoln, a one-mile handicap, as the grand opening of the British turf Flat season. It runs at the end of March or start of April, but the 2027 date wasn't on Doncaster's site when I checked. The Flat season preview picks things up from there, including the Guineas at Newmarket on 1 and 2 May.

The Epsom Derby preview covers Saturday 5 June, with the Oaks the day before. Then the Royal Ascot guide goes day by day through 15 to 19 June: big-field handicaps, draw notes and each-way angles.

How I approach the big days

Look, big days are where the bookies are happiest to see you. Everyone's betting, the coverage is wall to wall and it's very easy to back four horses in a race because you've got a feeling about each of them. I'm essentially a statistics/maths geek, so I come at a Festival or a National the same way I come at a wet Tuesday in January: price against probability, nothing more romantic than that.

I'm after profit, not a high strike rate. Big fields mean bigger prices and more each-way places, and an outsider that only places can still make more than an odds-on shot winning. Stakes stay in points (1pt might be £5 on a £100 bank) and they don't go up because it's Cheltenham. If I'm not sure about one, I leave it. Losers are part of it, even on the biggest day of the year.

Ante-post or on the day? The short version

Betting ante-post means taking a price weeks or months before the race. If the horse turns up and the market comes your way, you've beaten the starting price. If it doesn't run, you normally lose the stake unless the bookmaker has gone "non-runner no bet". Betting on the day can mean a shorter price, but you know the going, the field and the draw. My ante-post betting guide goes through when each one makes sense.

How these big-race pages are kept up to date

The weekly module at the top is rewritten every Monday and dated, so you always know how fresh it is. The horse racing calendar for 2027 is checked against the racecourses' own sites and changed if a fixture moves, and the Lincoln goes in as soon as Doncaster confirms it. Each event page gets a short write-up within a week of the race on what the trends got right and wrong. Any price on these pages shows the date it was taken. And if you fancy a multiple on a big Saturday, my lucky 15 tips page is where that lives.

Big races FAQs

When is the Cheltenham Festival 2027?

Tuesday 16 to Friday 19 March 2027, according to Cheltenham Racecourse. The Gold Cup is on the Friday.

When is the Grand National 2027?

Saturday 10 April 2027 at Aintree, the last day of a three-day festival that starts on Thursday 8 April.

When does the Flat season start?

The turf Flat season traditionally opens with the Lincoln meeting at Doncaster at the end of March or early April. All-weather Flat racing, such as Kempton's floodlit meetings, runs outside the turf season too.

What are the biggest horse races in the UK?

For most punters it's the Grand National, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Derby and the big Royal Ascot races, with the King George on Boxing Day not far behind. The calendar table above has the 2026/27 dates for all of them.

What big races are on this weekend?

See the dated module at the top of this page. I update it with the week's feature races and the big fixtures coming up.

Other guides

• How my premium tips work
• Irish horse racing tips and festival previews
• How to bet on horse racing
• Horse racing betting strategy
• How to read horse racing form
• UK and Irish racecourses