Blowers, an unconsidered 300-1 shot, became the joint longest-priced winner in modern horse racing history when triumphantly sloshing through the mud to win the opening race at Exeter on Thursday.
The meeting at the Devon track was in doubt throughout the morning due to the incessant rain and had to pass an inspection but those involved with Blowers, named after the cricket commentator Henry Blofeld, were thankful racing got the go ahead.
So was winning jockey James Best, a late substitute for the ride, who revealed afterwards that he was lucky to be on board the record-breaking gelding after fellow rider Ella Herbison had to give up the mount.
Best said he had got a phone call while driving on Thursday morning. “Ella Herbison was meant to ride him. I was on my way to riding out on the M5 at 10 past six and a random unknown Irish number rang me. Sometimes I don’t answer and I didn’t know who it was,” he explained on the Racing TV channel.
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“It was Ella. ‘Do you want to ride one in the first at Exeter?’ Sadly, she got stuck in traffic and didn’t make her flight. Thank you to Ella for thinking of me and for Nigel and the owners to allow me to ride.
“He was keen the last day so Nigel said with the ground being testing, he was worried they might crawl. Plan A was to drop in last, but then we thought he might relax better in front.
“He was jumping out to his left a bit so I stayed middle to outer down the back. He’s clearly handled the ground, got in a nice rhythm and thank you to all connections.”
Blowers, who had previously been tailed off in a point-to-point National Hunt Flat race and then pulled up when 200-1 for his hurdling debut at Chepstow, obviously has his quirks and looked like running out at one point before Best galvanised him after the final hurdle to hold off the hot favourite On The Bayou for a famous victory.
Equinoctial had set the previous record in Britain when winning at Kelso in November 1990 at 250-1 while He Knows No Fear won at Leopardstown in August 2020 at odds of 300-1, which was a new record for Britain and Ireland at the time. – Guardian
