The Grade B Paddy Power Chase, over three miles, 100 yards at Leopardstown, is one of the most valuable races over the Christmas period, and the latest edition was won by Living Next Door.

A son of Knockhouse Stud’s late star stallion Beneficial (by Top Ville), he is now nine years old, he was bred by Tommy Steele, and he is a £24,000 graduate of Cheltenham April Sale.

This win was something of a surprise as the 20/1 shot had finished in the frame on just one previous occasion from a dozen starts over fences, and that was when winning at Limerick in May 2013.

Before that he won twice over hurdles, and he also has a single point-to-point success to his name.

Living Next Door is out of a mare called Except Alice (by Orchestra), and that makes him a full-brother to the triple hurdle and dual chase scorer Yesyoucan, a Brian Ellison-trained gelding who is a year older than Saturday’s big winner.

Their ill-fated half-brother Nightfly (by Fourstars Allstar) won on both his bumper and hurdling debuts, and that gelding’s full-sister All Except Alice, who was placed twice over hurdles, got her only win in a bumper at Kilbeggan.

The second of those hurdle placings came over three miles at Cork, when she was only beaten a head in a 24-runner maiden. The youngest of her six registered progeny are a three-year-old son of the Arc hero Marienbard (by Caerleon) and a yearling daughter of Arcadio (by Monsun) who was born last April.

As for her dam, Except Alice had a Winged Love (by In The Wings) filly in 2013, produced when the mare was 22 years old.

The grandam of Living Next Door is the flat and hurdles scorer Las-Cancellas (by Monksfield), and that makes his dam a half-sister to top notch performer Harbour Pilot (by Be My Native).

He won a pair of bumpers, and he was a Grade 3 placed dual winner over hurdles, but excelled over the larger obstacles, winning the Grade 1 Drinmore Novice Chase and the Grade 2 Dr P J Moriarty Novice Chase, and earning placings in the Grade 1 Powers Gold Cup, the Grade 1 Punchestown Heineken Gold Cup, and two editions of the Grade 1 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Three of his other half-sisters have produced a blacktype earner at stud, and the most notable is Home At Last (by Mandalus), the unraced dam of the Grade 2 winner and Grade 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle runner-up Get Me Out Of Here (by Accordion). Synarria (by Guillaume Tell), who was the dam of Las-Cancellas, also had plenty of ability, and in addition to a pair of wins on the flat, she notched up five over obstacles including lListed handicap hurdles at Gowran Park and Fairyhouse.

None of her three winning offspring earned blacktype on the track, but two of Las-Cancellas’s siblings achieved honour at stud.

Dinny Kenn (by Phardante), who was unraced, became the dam of the Grade 2-winning chaser Eduard (by Morozov), and Friars Pass (by Monksfield), who was unplaced in bumpers and over hurdles, became the dam of the Grade 3 Grand National hero and Grade A Kerry National winner Monty’s Pass (by Montelimar).

That star retired nearly a decade ago, but Eduard, a seven-year-old trained by Nicky Richards, was runner-up to Wishfull Thinking in a Grade 2 contest over an extended two and a half miles at Huntingdon last month, and is rated 159 over fences.