Punchestown Festival 2026

The Punchestown Festival is Ireland's championship meeting of the National Hunt season — five days of Grade 1 jumps racing at Punchestown Racecourse in County Kildare, running 28 April to 2 May 2026. It's where the form lines from Cheltenham get settled and where the season's champions are crowned.

The meeting at a glance

Punchestown packs twelve Grade 1 races across five days — more top-flight jumps racing than any other meeting in the calendar, including Cheltenham. That concentration is what makes Punchestown so important: every division of the National Hunt code gets a championship finale, and the meeting regularly produces definitive season-ending verdicts.

Unlike the Cheltenham Festival's tightly packed programme, Punchestown spreads its feature races across the full week, giving trainers time to spot-prize their best horses in the right conditions.

Feature races

Punchestown Gold Cup (G1, Wednesday) — the three-mile-one-furlong championship for chasers. Past winners include Sizing John, Kemboy, Al Boum Photo and Galopin Des Champs.

Champion Hurdle (G1, Friday) — two miles, the Irish counterpart to the Cheltenham showpiece. Often re-matches the top hurdlers from March.

Champion Chase (G1, Tuesday) — two-mile chase championship, usually contested by the best two-milers in training.

Stayers Hurdle (G1, Thursday) — three-mile hurdle that brings together the staying division.

Champion Bumper (G1, Saturday) — the meeting's finale, a showcase for unraced Flat-bred hurdlers of the future.

Alongside those, the festival runs top-grade novice events for both hurdles and chases, plus handicap features like the Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup Handicap Chase.

How Punchestown differs from Cheltenham

Irish handlers dominate at Punchestown because the track suits horses who prefer a flatter, flowing course. The undulations at Cheltenham reward specific horses; Punchestown's galloping left-handed layout tends to produce the most "honest" form lines. If you're looking for the definitive answer on whether a Cheltenham result was a fluke or real, Punchestown is where you find it.

Ground is often faster in late April than it is in March, which can also flatter certain types — watch for horses who ran well but didn't quite get home on soft Cheltenham ground and now get better conditions.

Betting angles

Reigning champions often confirm form. If a horse won decisively at Cheltenham six weeks earlier and comes to Punchestown fresh, it's usually a solid prospect even at short odds.

Willie Mullins is the dominant yard. He's led the Punchestown trainers' table for well over a decade; factor his runners in strongly, especially in the novice divisions.

Handicaps are much more competitive than the Grade 1s. Many punters concentrate on the championship races; the value is often in the ultra-competitive handicaps where Irish-trained horses get first go off assessed marks.

Ground matters more than at Cheltenham. Because conditions vary more in late April, check going reports and look for horses whose profile matches the day's ground.

Where to find the best odds

We compare live Punchestown odds across 11 UK bookmakers in real time, alongside Betfair Exchange prices. Ante-post markets for the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle open months in advance; live-day markets fluctuate sharply once the stalls open and non-runners are confirmed.

For a primer on reading exchange prices versus bookmaker odds, see our guide on how betting exchange odds work.

Key dates — 2026

Day	Date	Feature
Tuesday	28 April	Champion Chase
Wednesday	29 April	Punchestown Gold Cup
Thursday	30 April	Stayers Hurdle
Friday	1 May	Champion Hurdle
Saturday	2 May	Champion Bumper

Post times and full cards are confirmed by the racecourse closer to the meeting. We'll surface live odds and market movers as soon as entries are declared.