200/1 OUTSIDER KILLAHARA Castle pulled off a stunning victory in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Boreen Belle Mares’ Novice Hurdle at Thurles.
The six-year-old defeated Willie Mullins’ 8/13 race favourite True Self by five lengths, to become the biggest-priced winner in Irish history.
Killahara Castle belongs to the Burke family in Hollycross, Tipperary – trainer John, his sister and owner Elaine, and his brother and jockey Martin.
100-1 was the previous biggest winning price in Ireland, with Miss Therese in the 1973 Blandford Stakes at the Curragh the most prominent winner.
There have been other 200/1 winners in Britain, including Dandy Flame’s at Wolverhampton last year, which was the joint-second-longest winner in British racing history.
The longest-priced ever in Britain was 250/1 shot Equinoctial at Kelso in November 1990.
Speaking to the Racing Post after the unlikely victory, jockey Martin Burke said:
“We were hoping for a bit of black type, and to be honest we hoped the race would break up a bit better than it did, but we threw her in anyway.
“She’s always had rakes of ability but her head is funny and it was just a matter of trying to get it out of her.”
He added: They went a good gallop, they came back and she just kept galloping. The smaller field suited her too. She usually races very keenly but settled lovely for me today, everything went right.”
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