But punters in the central west get a chance to make up for it on Boxing Day, with gallops, greyhounds and harness racing all on the menu.

Quite simply, if you like the racers, chasers or pacers you will be catered for.

Wellington's annual non-TAB gallop meeting will kick off proceedings, with the first of five events scheduled to leave the gates at 2.15pm.

A little more than an hour later greyhound action will kick off at Dawson Park with a 10-race program starting at 3.38pm.

If that isn't enough, when the greyhounds are done you can head down to the Dubbo Showground for a five-race program of harness racing, with the first set down for 7.45pm and the last for 10.15pm.

Boxing Day isn't the only big day for racing in the region, with plenty of greyhound and galloping action over the whole holiday period.

Dubbo Greyhound Racing Club will host meetings on December 30, January 3, January 10 and January 16 while a plethora of race meetings.

Macquarie Picnics will be held at Trangie on December 29, Warren will host a TAB meeting the following day before Gilgandra's two-day carnival starts on New Year's Day.

The club will then hold its cup meeting on January 6, with the feature event carrying $27,000 in prize money.

With that in mind, let's try to find a few winners.

At Wellington on Boxing Day the Bruce Parker-trained Castlereagh Grey will be hard to beat based on its debut win at Warren by more than five lengths.

It goes around in the Jarrod Wykes Electrical Class 1 Handicap (1100m).

At Dubbo dogs, Miss Charlyn should be hard to beat from box six in the Elite State @ Stud Stakes (318m) while later in the meeting Vicki Knows Best gets her chance to add a second win the her resume in the Caretakers Appreciation Stakes (318m).

Finally at the showground, look for the Amanda O'Neill-trained Rattlen Ranji to be hard to beat in the opening race while Sunofbula gets his chance in the Oamps Dubbo Pace (2120m).

Despite being a veteran, he is rated an R12 C8 pacer while the next best, Karinya Mat, is rated an R3 C3. Nathan Carroll takes the drive on Sunofbula, which is trained by his father Mick Carroll.

Central West connections will be eyeing off some of the $250,000 prize money on offer in the Inglis Nursery Stakes (1000m) at Warwick Farm today.

Wellington-based Bell River Thoroughbreds, operated by Andrew Ferguson, will have first-starter Sunshine Royale in the event while Mudgee trainer Jeff Brasch will saddle up Nuclear Snip, to be ridden by Greg Ryan.

Both horses go into the race with barrier trial wins under their belts, with Nuclear Snip scoring over 800m at Narromine and Sunshine Royale over 805m at Warwick Farm.