It may be one of the most important days in the racing calendar, but festive attendance figures have declined in recent yearsThere should be something – or rather, somewhere – for almost everyone on this year’s Boxing Day racing...

It may be one of the most important days in the racing calendar, but festive attendance figures have declined in recent years

There should be something – or rather, somewhere – for almost everyone on this year’s Boxing Day racing programme, if you live in England at least. Aintree in Liverpool, arguably the country’s most famous racecourse, will join the list of venues for the first time in its history, and whether they are north (Sedgefield and Wetherby), south (Fontwell), west (Wincanton) or in the middle (Market Rasen and Wolverhampton), serious to super?casual racing fans and those at all points in between will have a race meeting within an hour’s drive of their front door.

But will they bother? It is a question that may be nagging at Kempton Park in particular because, while attendances at most of the traditional Boxing Day venues have recovered to their pre?Covid levels, the crowd for racing’s most valuable and historic card on 26 December has not. The King George card pulled in 17,218 paying punters in 2019, and just under 20,000 a year earlier. The attendance for 2021 and 2022, however, was stuck at about 11,500.

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