Forager leads Ladalko at the last.

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Forager was cut from 50-1 to 33-1 by William Hill for the Royal & SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham after upsetting odds-on Ladalko in the Singapore Airlines Novices' Hurdle at Kempton on Saturday.

Easy to back and sent off a 15-2 chance under Seamus Durack, the six-year-old collared early leader Parsifal before the home turn and was then faced with a dangerous-looking challenge from the favourite.

The pair were level at the final flight as Ruby Walsh switched Ladalko to the inside, but Forager dug deep on the run-in to prevail by a neck, with In Accord 21 lengths back in third.

Neither trainer Mick Ryan nor owner Joseph Curran was present, and Curran was represented by his friend John Green.

He said: "He's shown he can handle the soft and that he's a battler, and there seems no reason why he shouldn't go for the SunAlliance, for which I had a little bit of 50s this morning."