It was an Unexpected Party for the Skelton team as the galloping grey landed the Grand Annual Handicap Chase to complete a double on Wednesday of the Cheltenham Festival.
The Skelton brothers had secured a second successive win in the Coral Cup with Langer Dan earlier on the card and Unexpected Party helped continue the celebrations with a dominant performance in the two mile chase. The Venetia Williams-trained Gemirande set a hot early pace with the favoured Harper's Brook in contention, whilst jockey Harry Skelton was happy to settle Unexpected Party into a rhythm in the early stages.
The grey gelding jumped into contention with a flying leap over the open ditch and continued to travel well through the latter stages of the race, whilst favourite Libberty Hunter loomed with a bold threat on the outside. The pair jumped the final fence together, and although it appeared Evan William's charge would finish best of the duo up the hill after switching to the inside, Unexpected Party stayed on well to secure the victory.
Trainer Dan Skelton said: "A great ride from Harry. I thought we were going to take our time a bit more than that, but I suppose with the standing start he got a great start - brilliant.
"We were trying to get in this race last year, and out of frustration at the start of this year I had him super-ready at Chepstow, and he won a Listed novices' chase. That bumped his handicap mark up and he ran in the Paddy Power off his new mark and didn't see out the trip - you can see why I've always wanted to run over two [miles]. I wanted to run him in this race last year - I'm not saying he would have won it, I'm not, and his form since wasn't really good enough but I thought he had a chance, but not more than a chance. It was a great ride.
"He'd been the bridesmaid so often, and had figured, but not more than that, and it starts playing on your mind - he won on good ground at Chepstow; is that everything that he has to have? Your mind starts playing tricks on you. But I remember coming here with Mohayyed once and saying, I don't think we should run, the ground's too soft, and quite rightly the owner's husband put his foot down and said, it's running. I learnt a great thing that day - if you've got them in form, sometimes the ground's not perfect for them but you've got to run them.
"He had a great start to the year, but in the winter he was nowhere - he was finishing last in four-runner novices' chases, admittedly good races, but finishing last and never looking like beating a horse, but the handicapper reassessed him from the Paddy Power days back to the mark he started off this year, and that was probably a big help to him.
"He was very brave over the last two fences - two big jumps over them. I would say I was surprised Harry got both big jumps, but fair play to the horse, he needed both of them.
"They are a pretty enthusiastic group of owners, to be fair, and Linda Shanahan has been every time we've been here, I think. The team involved in this horse are all Coolmore friends and relatives, so there will be an expected party after Unexpected Party!"
