Grand Annual Chase Tips & Odds

The race takes place at 16:40 on Wednesday 11th March 2026

Watch the race live on the subscription channel Racing TV which also offers options to stream the race via their streaming services. 

Alternatively, most bookmakers offer a free live horse racing stream allowing you to watch the race after you've placed a bet.

Plenty of talented horses have won the Grand Annual since the turn of the century, though the 1998 winner Edredon Bleu proved to be particularly talented. He arrived at the Grand Annual as a chaser firmly on the up for Henrietta Knight, and he landed a gamble to win under A.P. McCoy, winning by three and a half lengths. Edredon Bleu continued to progress, winning the 1998 Peterborough Chase at Huntingdon, before finishing second in the 1999 Champion Chase - a race seldom contested by winners of the Grand Annual. Having won the Peterborough Chase for the second year running, Edredon Bleu was a lively second favourite behind the hugely-fancied Flagship Uberalles, and with that rival only third, he burst clear under a trademark McCoy ride to become the champion chaser. Although that was perhaps his finest hour, Edredon Bleu would continue to produce plenty of stunning performances, winning the 2003 King George VI Chase at Kempton, before eventually signing off in the 2005 Ryanair Chase.

There are no trials as such for the Grand Annual, and recent winners have had differing paths to the race. For instance, the 2019 winner Croco Bay won the race on the back of a 227-day absence, having run at Worcester during the summer. Key contenders for the Grand Annual regularly run in valuable two-mile handicap chases and even graded races, and both the 2018 winner and runner-up, Le Prezien and Gino Trail, took their chance in a handicap chase at Sandown at the beginning of February before running at the festival.

The most successful jockey in the Grand Annual is Graham Bradley, who had ridden four winners of the race, courtesy of Pearlyman (1986), My Young Man (1992), Sound Reveille (1995), and Uncle Ernie (1997).

The most successful trainer in the history of the Grand Annual is Paul Nicholls, who has trained the winner of the race on four occasions. Nicholls’ winners in the Grand Annual have come courtesy of St Pirran (2004), Andreas (2007), Solar Impulse (2016), and Le Prezien (2018).