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Cheltenham Festival Ante-Post Tips – Repeat Success on the Cards for Skelton’s Unexpected Grand Annual Hero

Sometimes the answers to the Cheltenham Festival are hidden in plain sight, and Matty Sutcliffe is certainly hoping so with a 14/1 selection who scored in fine style in 2024…

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Grand Annual – Unexpected Party 14/1 1pt WIN 

As noted last week, the inclusion of the handicap’s in the sports book will predominantly shift the focus of this column toward those markets, and we’re kicking off with a familiar face in UNEXPECTED PARTY for the Grand Annual, who was a 14/1 winner in the race for the column last season. 

The selection required some faith having been beaten 17L, 15L, 53L and 51L in his four starts prior to the Grand Annual, but only one of those was at a similar distance which was the Henry VIII Novice’s Chase and he was only beaten 15L in deplorable ground. He was entirely unexposed in handicaps at two miles at the point in the season, and the thought process was that the drop in trip in handicap company would bring out the best of him, or thinly veiled, he was ‘Langer Dan’d’. 

Having watched the race back earlier, he jumped much better with a clear sight of his fences in front having marginally taken the lead down the back, and it was evident how strongly he was travelling when kicking for home on the bend. 

He always looked in command jumping the second last under Harry Skelton, drawing away in the manner of a well handicapped horse.The form’s worked out very well, with Liberty Hunter following him home in second now rated 12lbs higher at 151, Path d’Oroux in third is rated 2lbs higher having won here earlier in October before a 2nd in G3 Company at Fairyhouse, Sa Furuer was thirteen lengths back in fourth and is now rated 7lbs higher having won a listed chase at Navan off 143 (152r now), Gemirande was sixteen lengths back in fifth and is rated 10lns higher having won the December Gold Cup, Saint Roi was in sixth and is rated 10lbs higher with form figures of 62201 since, and even the likes of Solness and Harpers Brook have won since, for all they didn’t give their showing. 

Unexpected Party will undoubtedly have been campaigned for a repeat success, and even though he is still 7lbs higher, both of his runs at two miles this season have been perfectly respectable, beaten a length in a 27k Graduation Chase at Carlisle behind a subsequent winner who’s now rated 149, and he lost little in defeat beaten thirteen lengths by horses rated 24lbs, 12lbs and 18lbs higher than him in the G2 Shloer Chase here in November. 

He’s entered for the G1 Clarence House on Saturday and will likely drop another pound or two for finishing out the back of the TV, and if he can go to the festival fresh on a mark say 5lbs higher, then I’d give him a strong chance of landing back to back renewals. His RPR of 149 in the Shloer was the same one he was awarded for winning the Grand Annual which suggests his Grand Annual success was certainly no fluke, and with Etalon and Asta La Pasta likely to go to Aintree, Skelton should be primed to retain the faith on the grey, who still remains unexposed in two miles handicap chases.

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