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Boxing Day banker bets from the Timeform and Sporting Life racing team

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Thu December 25, 2025 · 6h ago

Our team of experts provide their best bets for the feast of action in the UK on Boxing Day.

SWEET MAGIC – 12.00 Aintree (Kieran Clark)

Lanesborough looked firmly on his way to top-end handicaps when routing a field on his return and gave a significant form boost to SWEET MAGIC in doing so.

She chased him home in a race that produced a good timefigure on her final start last season and made an encouraging reappearance last month, shaping as if the run was needed in another race that has worked out. The fitting of first-time cheekpieces can assist her in going one better than when collared by subsequent dual listed winner Lavida Adiva in this contest 12 months ago.

BROOKSIDE LA – 13.00 Wetherby (Simon Walker)

Santos Blue won this on handicap debut for Dan Skelton in 2022 having finished down the field in three maidens/novices and BROOKSIDE LA has exactly the same profile, considerately handled on all hurdling outings so far having shown plenty of promise on the first of his two starts in bumpers and with a pedigree that strongly suggests he’ll be very much home upped to two and a half miles for the first time.

WENDIGO - 13.20 Kempton (Dan Barber)

Kitzbuhel’s chasing debut win marked him out as another potentially high-class chasing recruit for his all-conquering stable but he’ll need to settle better than he did in the Liverpool Hurdle when tried at the trip in the spring and, conversely, the step up to three-miles looks absolutely ideal for WENDIGO, who has achieved a smart level of form himself despite starting out around two-and-a-half miles.

He looked all stamina during a progressive first campaign over hurdles and can put himself to the top of the domestic rankings in the staying novice ranks by outstaying his five rivals and opening his Grade 1 account.

BUTCH – 13.35 Wetherby (Nic Doggett)

Most eyes will be on favourite Konfusion, a rapidly improving chaser from an in-form yard, but I think the value in the race lies with BUTCH who looks likely to be more on the ball than when well beaten on his seasonal reappearance (behind the reopposing Knappers Hill) at Haydock last month.

That was his first start since a summer wind op, and he was held up which was a change of tactics, but I expect him to be much more prominently ridden here which should mean he gets the perfect tow into the race from likely front-runner Konfusion.

While that runner has a (well-earned) 11lb rise to cope with, Butch is only 3lb higher than when successful over hurdles at Cheltenham in 2024. Obviously, it's a concern that he has bled before, but these are his ideal conditions/trip, and he looks primed to go well at a price.

PEDLEY WOOD – 14.03 Wincanton (Dave Ord)

There was a lot to like about PEDLEY WOOD’s reappearance run at Exeter, and he’s fancied to resume winning ways at a track where he has a good record.

Joe Tizzard’s charge found two-and-a-half miles and a muddling pace against him on his return to action, but finished strongly to take fourth behind Good Friday Fairy with petrol left in the tank. The step back up in trip on Boxing Day is very much in his favour and he’s only two pounds higher than when winning over course-and-distance in January.

GLEN ROAD – 14.10 Wetherby (Lewis Tomlinson)

Sue Smith & Joel Parkinson are in red-hot form and the progressive GLEN ROAD has certainly contributed to the yard’s good start to the winter. He signed off last season by winning two of his final three outings and shaped encouragingly in a race that developed into a less-than-suitable test of speed here over 19.5f at Wetherby before building on that effort over today’s C&D two weeks later to get of the better next-time-out winner One Eye On Vegas.

Glen Road then followed up at Kelso, pulling some way clear with the Nicky Richards-trained Authorized Mission, who himself had decidedly hacked up on his return, so given his own rate of progress and the strength of his recent formlines, I’d be confident he’ll prove capable of defying a 7lb rise back at his local track.

THE JUKEBOX MAN - 14.30 Kempton (Matt Brocklebank)

Ben Pauling's THE JUKEBOX MAN might have missed some important conditioning in the major Grade 1 novice races at the spring festivals last time around but he remains a bit of a blank canvass as a consequence and looked every bit as dominant as the market had anticipated he might be on seasonal debut at Haydock.

He is made for this test on the prevailing ground around Kempton Park, where he put in an exhibition of jumping in last year’s Kauto Star Novices’ Chase over the same course and distance.

AEOLIAN – 15.35 Wolverhampton (Ben Linfoot)

Around 24 hours on from his Christmas message to the nation The King could have a winner at Wolverhampton with AEOLIAN in the Class 2 handicap over 1m4f.

William Haggas’ three-year-old started life in handicaps off a lowly mark in the 80s but the penny dropped at Kempton last time when he improved a bundle for his all-weather debut and a 7lb hike in the weights might not be enough to stop him following up.

Boxing Day banker bets from the Timeform and Sporting Life racing team

SWEET MAGIC – 12.00 Aintree (Kieran Clark)