Grand Annual Chase
The Grand Annual Chase is the final race of the fourth day at the Cheltenham Festival, concluding the action at Gloucestershire for another year. The Grand Annual is a Grade 3 handicap chase for horses aged five years and above. Run over an approximate distance of 2 miles and 110 yards, there is a total of fourteen fences to be jumped.
The Grand Annual is a prestigious event due it’s history. It is the oldest race at the festival, not to mention the oldest chase that is currently in the National Hunt calendar. The race has a fascinating history, having been first run in 1834 at Andoversford, near Cheltenham. The race also took part at several different venues having been run at Leicester and Warwick before returning to Cheltenham in 1913. The race has been referred to as the ‘Johnny Henderson’ Grand Annual Chase since 2005. Johnny Henderson was one of the people responsible for safeguarding the festival’s future back in 1960 when raising the sufficient funds to purchase the venue, amid fears that property developers were considering the venue. He is also the father of leading trainer Nicky Henderson, who will be hopeful of a good 2012 Cheltenham Festival with his string of talented horses.
Chasing A Grand Winner
With the Grand Annual Chase now being the final event of four days of brilliant racing at Cheltenham, punters will be looking for one last winner to celebrate the highlight of the jump racing season. It certainly won’t be straight forward, however, as once again this will be a competitive handicap affair where many have a chance to take victory.
Trends of the past ten years show we are looking for a fairly lightly raced sort that has run some good races but not notched up many victories. Despite sounding slightly unusual, all ten of the last winners had recorded no more than a single victory in the season before winning at the festival. Nine of the ten winners were also rated between 129-134, a very tight band. Horses with previous experience at Cheltenham have also faired well.
As with plenty of races at the Cheltenham Festival, it is hard to take much of an ante post stance without knowing for sure what route the horses will take, and whether they will line up for the Grand Annual Chase. The market is heading by the Colin Tizzard trained Oiseau de Nuit, who took this race last year. He has shown some impressive form this year against smart opposition, and if he was to run he would be carrying a big weight which would make me consider him opposable. Another potential contender could be the Paul Nicholls’ trained Hold Fast. However he won his race last time out in style and again may find himself too high up at the weights if going the handicap route. As always we will be better served to assess the runners once we know for sure who will be lining up.
Oiseau de Nuit Takes Grand Glory
The 2011 Grand Annual Chase went the way of Oiseau de Nuit who wasn’t fancied for the race, starting the race at 40/1, by far the biggest priced winner of the past ten years. Oiseau de Nuit jumped the third-last in fourth position, then put the burners on as they turned for the straight. He jumped the second-last marginally in front before asserting to open up a few lengths lead jumping the last. He stayed on strongly to win by just over three lengths over Askthemaster. A few of the horses that were further behind have shown useful form this season, with I’msingingtheblues and Tanks For That both recording wins.
