The Dublin Racing Festival is the weekend when the Irish National Hunt season stops pretending it’s a warm‑up and shows everyone exactly where they stand for the spring.
It matters in Ireland because almost every big yard targets Leopardstown, and it matters for the rest of the season because so many Cheltenham and Aintree winners announce themselves here first.
Over two days, Leopardstown lays on 14 races, including eight Grade 1s, and it has become the natural checkpoint between Christmas and Cheltenham.
Trainers get proper ground, proper fields, and proper prize money, which tends to concentrate the talent very nicely.
Form from this meeting regularly feeds straight into the spring Festivals; you can almost play “spot the DRF winner” through Cheltenham week.
For racing fans, it is one of the few meetings where you can watch the whole card and feel like every race is telling you something useful for March and beyond.
So what’s on the cards in 2026 and who are the bookies’ favourites to land some big wins?
Day One: Saturday 31 January – Staying Power And Irish Gold
Day one at Leopardstown opens the Festival with a card that leans a little towards stamina and future chasers, even if the speedier types do sneak onto the bill.
There are seven races, headed by the Novice Hurdle and the Irish Gold Cup, with quality pretty much from the first flagfall.
The Grade 1 Novice Hurdle over 2m6f53y is for the stayers, and is often seen as a stepping stone to the Albert Bartlett or similar long‑distance targets in the spring.
Later in the afternoon comes the Irish Gold Cup over 3m70y, a cornerstone of the Irish staying chase programme and a race that usually tells you plenty about the Gold Cup picture at Cheltenham.
Around those headline acts sit the Irish Arkle Novice Chase as well as some good handicaps, including the Handicap Hurdle and the Barberstown Castle Handicap Chase.
Day Two: Sunday 1 February – Speed, Stars And The Irish Champion
If Saturday sets the scene, Sunday tends to provide the fireworks, with the Irish Champion Hurdle as the obvious focal point.
Again, it is a seven‑race card, this time stacked with Grade 1 two‑milers and novice events that scream “Cheltenham trial” from the title upwards.
The Ladbrokes Novice Chase and Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle give the up‑and‑coming horses their Grade 1 stage over 2m5f and 2m respectively.
The Ladbrokes Dublin Chase mirrors the Champion Chase division, while the Irish Champion Hurdle brings together the very best hurdlers over two miles before they head across to Gloucestershire.
Bookending that class are competitive handicaps and a mares’ bumper and handicap hurdle that quietly supply future Festival winners while everyone is arguing about the big names.
Grade 1 Races: Who Are The Frontrunners?
The odds will jiggle their way right up to the tapes, but a few names have already elbowed their way to the front of the ante‑post markets.
Treat them as a guide rather than gospel – these are still jumpers, after all.
Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle (Grade 1)
Bookmakers have been keen to latch onto classy staying novices, and Doctor Steinberg, from Willie Mullins, is trading towards the head of some ante‑post lists for this 2m6f prize after a series of strong efforts over hurdles.
His profile – progressive, stamina‑laden and from a major yard – fits the recent history of the race rather neatly.
Behind him in the early markets sit other unexposed types out of the Mullins and Elliott battalions, many of whom have been mopping up maiden and graded novice events through the winter.
The fun here is that several of them hold Cheltenham entries over similar trips, so any horse that wins this impressively may find its Albert Bartlett price evaporating before you can say “non‑runner, no bet”.
Juvenile Hurdle (Grade 1)
The Juvenile Hurdle over two miles is never short on intrigue, largely because half the field only discovered they were hurdlers sometime in late autumn.
Early lists tend to be topped by slick, nimble types who jumped smartly on Irish winter ground and have Triumph Hurdle entries waiting in the wings.
Ante‑post markets at this stage are often dominated by one or two French‑recruited ex‑Flat horses who took to hurdling like they’d been doing it in the paddock all along.
Case in point being Narciso Has, from Willie Mullins, who runs in the gold and green hoops of JP McManus. Likewise, Mange Tout, who runs in the Robcour colours for Gordon Elliott.
Expect the winner here to head straight to the top end of the Triumph betting, and for at least one horse who finishes a staying‑on fourth, to be suddenly re‑branded as a “Fred Winter project”.
Goffs Irish Arkle Novice Chase (Grade 1)
The Irish Arkle is all about pace, accuracy, and occasionally sheer bloody‑mindedness, and current ante‑post chatter puts a speedy novice like Romeo Coolio right in the thick of the two‑mile conversation this season.
His performances have already seen him touted as an Arkle type at Cheltenham, so Leopardstown could be the ideal dress rehearsal.
He is unlikely to have the stage to himself, because the Mullins team alone seems to have a small platoon of possible Arkle horses, with the likes of Kargese and Kopek Des Bordes prominent in the betting.
Speaking of which, the betting tends to tighten sharply once declarations are in, but at this stage, it is fair to say the front of the market is heavy with bright, enthusiastic types who jump a fence faster than some punters can find the remote.
Irish Gold Cup (Grade 1)
The Irish Gold Cup often feels like a slightly less stressful version of the Cheltenham Gold Cup for connections, but it is no soft option, as this year’s ante‑post lists underline.
Reigning Gold Cup hero Galopin Des Champs still looms large over the staying chase division after his sequence of Grade 1 wins in Ireland and Britain, and he understandably sits high in the betting again.
Close behind him in the early markets are battle‑hardened Grade 1 chasers such as Fact To File, Haiti Couleurs, Gaelic Warrior, Inothewayurthinkin, and other familiar Festival names who have been trading blows in the big three‑mile chases.
With that many talented horses circling the same prize, this is exactly the sort of race where small tactical decisions, and the occasional daring ride, can turn the market on its head in about three fences.
Ladbrokes Novice Chase (Grade 1)
Sunday’s Ladbrokes Novice Chase over 2m5f107y tends to be the playground for horses that may end up staying three miles but currently have enough zip to travel strongly at this intermediate trip.
Early layers have sided with high‑class novices that have already won or placed in Grade 2 company and are quoted prominently for the Turners or Brown Advisory at Cheltenham.
Names like Final Demand and Kitzbuhel sit prominently in discussions about this division, even if final targets are still being debated in the weighing room and beyond.
Punters need to keep half an eye on alternative options, but any horse that dominates here usually travels to Cheltenham with a price tag to match.
Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle (Grade 1)
The Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle is the top‑level two‑mile novice event, effectively the Irish equivalent of the Supreme trial.
Current ante‑post lists lean towards slick, strong‑travelling novices who have already won smartly at Leopardstown or Punchestown and appear among the Supreme entries.
Because so many yards like to keep their options open, the market can look a bit like a family WhatsApp group – lots of names, not much clarity – until closer to the day.
Still, the top of the betting will be dominated by horses with unblemished or near‑perfect hurdle records, and the winner often lines up at Cheltenham as one of the shorter‑priced Irish challengers.
Ladbrokes Dublin Chase (Grade 1)
The Ladbrokes Dublin Chase is the two‑mile Grade 1 for established chasers, and the ante‑post market reflects that, with proven stars towards the top.
One of the shortest ante-post odds across the entire racing festival is in this race, where Marine Nationale is trading at Evens.
And, not far behind him, are both Majborough and Solness, on around 3/1 or 4/1 antepost.
Chasers stepping up from novice company, or those trying to rebuild reputations after mishaps earlier in the season, also feature prominently in the prices.
This is the key trial for the Champion Chase at Cheltenham from an Irish perspective, so market moves here are scrutinised almost as closely as the horses’ jumping.
Irish Champion Hurdle (Grade 1)
The Irish Champion Hurdle is all about quality over two miles, and this year’s ante‑post market is headed by Lossiemouth, who has become something of a winning habit machine in Grade 1 company.
She is a nine‑time Grade 1 winner and is being asked to stretch her sequence to five consecutive victories at this level, which explains why bookmakers are keeping her on a fairly short leash at around 5/4.
Her main market rival at this stage is Brighterdaysahead, another star mare from the Gordon Elliott team who was once touted as a potential Champion Hurdle winner at Cheltenham.
Behind that pair sit high‑class horses like El Fabiolo and Anzadam, who bring strong graded form and sit around the 8/1 mark, along with other Festival‑class hurdlers such as Ballyburn at slightly bigger prices.
It is a deep division, but right now the market is telling a fairly simple story: if you want to beat Lossiemouth, you will probably need to produce the performance of the season.
After Leopardstown: All Roads Lead To Cheltenham
Once the last horse has trotted back into the Leopardstown winner’s enclosure, attention turns almost immediately to the Cheltenham Festival in March.
Dublin Racing Festival winners at Leopardstown tend to be shunted straight to the top of the ante‑post lists for races like the Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup, Arkle and the novice events, and you can fully expect markets to be reshaped in the days after the meeting.
Cheltenham is still the next big British or Irish National Hunt Festival on the calendar, and the Dublin Racing Festival has evolved into its most important form guide.
For racing fans, it creates a neat narrative: Leopardstown for confirmation, Cheltenham for glory and Aintree, Grand National included, for the grand finale.
BETFRED
