How Kempton Tips Work on The Tipster League
Every tipster on The Tipster League is ranked by all-time results across all UK and Irish racecourses in our tipster rankings league table. For each race on the Kempton card, the tip shown comes from the highest-ranked tipster who has tipped in that race. Tips can update through the morning as more selections come in, but all selections are locked in at 12:00 BST.
What sets The Tipster League apart is that every selection is recorded on each tipster’s public profile — wins, losses, and everything in between. The “Top Tipsters at Kempton” section on this page breaks that down further, showing how each tipster has performed at this course specifically.
A strong ranking reflects past results, not future outcomes, so always do your own research before placing a bet.
Kempton Park Racecourse
Kempton Park Racecourse is in Sunbury-on-Thames, Surrey — one of the closest racecourses to central London — with Kempton Park station bordering the course entrance on the London Waterloo to Shepperton line. The racecourse opened in July 1878 and is owned by the Jockey Club.
Kempton stages both National Hunt racing on turf and flat racing on an all-weather Polytrack surface. The chase and hurdle courses run right-handed around a triangular circuit that is one of the flattest jumping tracks in Britain. The chase course has ten fences per circuit with three in the home straight, and the run-in from the last fence is short at around 200 yards. The hurdle course shares the same layout with six flights per circuit. The flat track is a separate right-handed Polytrack oval installed in 2006 when the old turf flat course was replaced with an all-weather surface and floodlighting. Kempton is the only right-handed all-weather track in Britain.
The Polytrack circuit has two loops. The inner loop has a run-in of under two furlongs and stages the shorter sprint races. The outer loop provides a finishing straight of approximately three furlongs and is used for races at six furlongs and beyond. Both loops are floodlit, allowing Kempton to stage regular evening fixtures throughout the year.
In January 2017, the Jockey Club announced plans to close the site for housing development, with Kempton’s major races to transfer to Sandown Park. The announcement drew strong opposition from the racing community and local council. By 2020, revised plans were confirmed that allowed racing to continue at Kempton for the foreseeable future. For fixture dates and visitor information, see Kempton Park on The Jockey Club website.
Key Races at Kempton
The Boxing Day meeting is Kempton’s flagship fixture and one of the most important days in the National Hunt calendar. Three Grade 1 races are run on a single card — an almost unique concentration in British jump racing.
The King George VI Chase over three miles is the centrepiece, first run in 1937 and second only to the Cheltenham Gold Cup in prestige among staying chases. The race has a history of dominant repeat winners — Desert Orchid won four King Georges between 1986 and 1990, and Kauto Star holds the record with five victories between 2006 and 2011. The Christmas Hurdle is a two-mile Grade 1 regularly used as a Champion Hurdle trial. The Kauto Star Novices’ Chase completes the Boxing Day treble as a Grade 1 for staying novice chasers. The second day of the Christmas meeting features the Desert Orchid Chase and Wayward Lad Novices’ Chase, both at Grade 2.
January brings the Lanzarote Hurdle over two miles and five furlongs — a competitive staying handicap — and the Silviniaco Conti Chase at Grade 2. The late February card is effectively a mini-festival: the Adonis Juvenile Hurdle is a key trial for the Triumph Hurdle, the Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle and Pendil Novices’ Chase test promising novices, and a three-mile handicap chase rounds out a strong card.
On the flat, the September Stakes and Sirenia Stakes are both Group 3 races on the Polytrack. The September Stakes over a mile and three furlongs is an established middle-distance prize, while the Sirenia Stakes is a six-furlong two-year-old race that has produced future Group 1 performers. Floodlit evening fixtures keep the all-weather card busy between the headline meetings.
What to Look for When Betting at Kempton
Kempton operates as two different racecourses in all but name. The Polytrack flat circuit and the turf jumping course demand entirely different form analysis, and form on one surface rarely translates to the other. The all-weather statistics and National Hunt statistics on this page break down the leading jockeys, trainers, and owners for each surface separately — those figures are worth checking before studying the card.
On the Polytrack, the two-loop layout creates a measurable draw bias at sprint distances. On the inner circuit, the short run-in after the final bend favours low-drawn runners who can establish position early. The effect is less pronounced on the outer loop where the longer finishing straight gives wider-drawn horses more time to close ground. The Draw Bias by Distance section on this page shows the breakdown race by race.
Kempton is the only right-handed all-weather track in Britain. Horses with strong form at Lingfield, Wolverhampton, or Chelmsford — all left-handed — may not reproduce it here. The Polytrack surface is also considered deeper than some other synthetic tracks, which can affect speed comparisons across venues, so course-specific form carries extra weight.
Over fences and hurdles, the flat terrain is the defining characteristic. Kempton is one of the easiest jumping courses to handle — there are no significant gradients and the ground tends to ride consistently. Fluent, long-striding jumpers who maintain a rhythm in their fences tend to do well. The run-in on the chase course is short at around 200 yards, making the last fence more influential than at courses with longer finishing straights — a mistake at the final fence is difficult to recover from. The Boxing Day card draws the strongest fields of the jumps season at Kempton, and form from this meeting is closely studied through the rest of the winter. King George form does not always translate to Cheltenham, where the undulations and uphill finish test a completely different set of qualities. If you are building multi-race bets, our horse racing accumulator tips page combines selections across the card, though adding more legs cuts the probability. See today’s horse racing tips for the full fixture list across all courses.