Jumps Season Preview 2026/27: The Divisions, the Big Dates and the Yards to Watch

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By The Guv'nor · Last updated October 2026

My jumps season preview starts with the dates. The 2026/27 season gets going with Cheltenham's Showcase on 23-24 October and the Charlie Hall weekend at Wetherby on 30-31 October. It builds through Christmas to the Cheltenham Festival (16-19 March 2027) and the Grand National (10 April), then finishes at Sandown on 24 April and Punchestown (27 April to 1 May).

This is my National Hunt season preview for the winter ahead. You get the dates, last season's Grade 1 form division by division, and a table I put together of how the big yards actually did in the top races. You won't find a horses-to-follow list on this page. My selections go to members, and everything here is public form you can check yourself.

Jumps season preview: the key National Hunt racing season dates, from now to Punchestown

I checked every date on the racecourse's own site, or on Horse Racing Ireland's 2027 fixture list, on 5 October 2026. Fixtures can move, especially when the frost gets in, so check again before you book a day out.

Sources: the Cheltenham, Aintree, Sandown, Haydock and Kempton fixture pages, the Wetherby, Down Royal, Newbury, Fairyhouse, Leopardstown and Punchestown sites, and the HRI 2027 fixture list. For the week-by-week view, my big races calendar has every headline race in one place.

The staying chasers: the Gold Cup picture

Here's how last season's eight open Grade 1 staying chases went, from Down Royal in November to Punchestown in April. All SPs are the official starting prices, from the published results.

Seven different winners from eight races. Only Gaelic Warrior won twice, taking the Gold Cup and then the Punchestown Gold Cup. He was rated 172 at Cheltenham and 176 by Punchestown, and that 176 is the highest official rating of any winner in the 73 Grade 1s behind my trainer table further down. Jango Baie, joint favourite with him at Cheltenham, finished second there before winning at Aintree.

The other public fact worth knowing: Galopin Des Champs, a dual Gold Cup winner, started favourite for both the Savills Chase (6/5) and the Irish Gold Cup (15/8) and finished third both times. The Irish Gold Cup itself was moved from the Saturday to Monday 2 February after the Saturday card was abandoned. That's the sort of thing that matters when you're judging a trial run on different ground or a shortened prep.

Look, I'm not printing ante-post prices for March here. They move every week, and a price without the date it was taken is no use to anyone. The race-by-race detail is in my Cheltenham Gold Cup preview and the King George preview.

Two-milers and the Champion Hurdle division

The two-mile hurdle division (about 3,200 metres) had a clear reference point last season, and it's easy to see why from the results.

Lossiemouth won four of her five Grade 1s in that table. The one she lost, the Irish Champion Hurdle on heavy ground, went to Brighterdaysahead, who beat her that day at Leopardstown and was second to her at Cheltenham. The Fighting Fifth is the outlier: Golden Ace, the 2025 Champion Hurdle winner, won it at 22/1 while the favourite, Constitution Hill, fell at the second.

Over fences at two miles, Il Etait Temps won the Tingle Creek (8/11 fav), the Queen Mother Champion Chase (5/2) and the Punchestown Champion Chase (8/11 fav). In between, he fell two out as the 2/5 favourite in the Clarence House at Ascot, which went to the ten-year-old Jonbon at 6/1. Majborough won the Dublin Chase at 2/1, and Edwardstone took the Celebration Chase at Sandown aged 12, at 11/1.

The Champion Hurdle preview goes deeper into the hurdlers, and the Cheltenham Festival guide covers the two-mile chasers alongside the rest of the week.

The novice divisions: what last season's bumpers and novice hurdles tell us

Quick jargon check. A bumper is a National Hunt Flat race: no obstacles, for young jumps-bred horses before they go hurdling. A maiden hurdle is for horses that haven't won over hurdles yet, and a novice hurdle is for horses that hadn't won a hurdle race before the current season started. Last season's novice hurdlers are this season's candidates for novice chases, and last season's bumper horses move on to hurdles.

These were the big novice and bumper winners. Which division each one goes into this winter is the trainer's call, and nothing here is confirmed until they run.

What does that tell us? Mainly that form lines between the big meetings don't always hold. The Mourne Rambler won the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham, then went off 11/8 favourite at Punchestown and was beaten by With Nolimit at 14/1. No Drama This End won the Challow at 4/9 but was pulled up as the 5/2 favourite in the Turners, which went to King Rasko Grey at 11/1. King Rasko Grey then backed it up at Punchestown at 8/13.

The lesson: who a horse beat, and how far, tells you more than the race title. A novice that beat good horses in a small field can be a better guide than one that won a big-name race from a weak one. If you want the nuts and bolts of doing that yourself, my guide on how to read horse racing form walks through it.

The yards that matter: trainer strike rates in last season's Grade 1s

Plenty of sites list trainers by total winners. I wanted something narrower: how each yard actually did in the races that decide the divisions. So I logged every runner in every Grade 1 jumps race run in Britain and Ireland from 1 October 2025 to 2 May 2026.

How I built it: every race labelled Grade 1 in Sporting Life's published results for UK and Irish jumps meetings in that window, abandoned races left out (the original Dublin Racing Festival Saturday was abandoned and re-run on 2 February). Runners means horses that started, so non-runners are excluded and fallers and pull-ups count as beaten. It's one season, and some of these samples are tiny: Noel Meade's row is seven runners, Nicky Henderson's is 22, so treat those strike rates as a snapshot, not a rule.

A few things stand out. Willie Mullins won 25 of the 73 Grade 1s, about a third, with 10 of them in Britain and 15 in Ireland. His strike rate is only 15% because he runs so many in each race; volume is the point. Nicky Henderson and Joseph O'Brien ran far fewer and won about one in three. And Dan Skelton won the British trainers' championship for 2025/26 (that title goes on prize money) with only four Grade 1 wins in this table, so plenty of his prize money must have come from below the very top level.

For the market side: in these 73 Grade 1s the SP favourite (joint favourites included) won 30, which is 41%, and 15 winners went off at 10/1 or bigger. That's industry SP. Across all UK and Irish jumps racing from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2026, Betfair SP (BSP) favourites won 45.1% of non-handicaps (2,044 races) and 30.1% of handicaps (3,000 races); the full breakdown is in how often favourites win. For the yards in more depth, see my guide to the top horse racing trainers.

How I approach a jumps season

If I am honest, I come at the jumps the same way I come at everything else. I'm essentially a statistics/maths geek (I was a Quantitative Researcher at a Tier 1 investment bank before this), so it's prices and probabilities: what's the price, what's the real chance, and is there a gap between the two.

The outsiders in my newsletter come from a new but proven system that picks out horses that have won or come close at a higher weight or mark than they're running off today. That's a handicap idea, and the jumps calendar is packed with handicaps from now until April. I explain what that means in well handicapped horses, and the mechanics of marks and weights are in horse racing handicaps explained.

My newsletter usually has a 'Banker' or two, which is just my word for a shorter-priced bet I rate as solid, alongside those outsiders. And when I get stable information, or the smart money is moving, members hear about it.

The rest is discipline. I stake in points (1pt might be £5 on a £100 bank), I don't chase, and I skip races I'm not sure about. Some days there's nothing worth backing and it's a stinky day for the ponies. I care about profit month to month, not win rate, and I like outsiders and each-way value because even when they place we can make more than an odds-on shot winning. Understanding that losers are a thing is the key to being a winner longer term.

My actual jumps selections go out to Winners Club members in my morning newsletter.

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When does the jumps season start and end?

Jump racing runs all year in Britain and Ireland. There's a lighter summer programme; on 18 July 2026, for example, Market Rasen and Cartmel both staged jumps cards, and Kilbeggan and Wexford raced over hurdles on 8 August.

The season most people mean, with the good horses, starts in October and runs to late April. In Britain the finale is Sandown's bet365 Jump Finale (24 April 2027), and the trainers' title is settled on prize money at the end of the season. In Ireland the big finish is the Punchestown Festival, with racing there from 27 April to 1 May 2027 in HRI's fixture list.

So the National Hunt season 2026/27 proper runs from late October to 1 May. For the other half of the calendar, see my Flat season preview, and for how my newsletter works, read about my tips service.

Jumps season FAQs

When does the national hunt season start in 2026?

Jumps racing never fully stops, but the 2026/27 season builds from October: Cheltenham's Showcase is on 23-24 October 2026, followed by Wetherby's Charlie Hall meeting and Down Royal's Festival of Racing on 30-31 October.

When is the Cheltenham Festival 2027?

Tuesday 16 to Friday 19 March 2027, according to The Jockey Club's Cheltenham site. The Gold Cup is the Friday feature.

When is the Grand National 2027?

Aintree's Grand National Festival runs from Thursday 8 to Saturday 10 April 2027, with the National itself on the Saturday. My Grand National preview covers the race.

Who was champion jumps trainer last season?

Dan Skelton won the British trainers' championship for 2025/26, his first title, after Willie Mullins had won the previous two.

Who won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2026?

Gaelic Warrior, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Paul Townend, at 11/4 joint favourite. Jango Baie was second and Inothewayurthinkin third.

More in this guide

• Well handicapped horses: what it means and how I spot them
• When does the Flat season start? 2027 dates and preview
• Big races 2026/27: the full calendar
• Cheltenham Festival preview
• Horse racing tips by email: how my premium tips work