The Cheltenham Festival
is, of course, the pinnacle of National Hunt racing and, granted the
host of competitive races on offer, long-priced winners are to be
expected. However, the longest-priced winner in the history of the
Cheltenham Festival came not, as you might expect, in a traditional
‘cavalry charge’, such as the Coral Cup, Pertemps Final or County
Hurdle, but in the Cheltenham Gold Cup itself.
Indeed, the victory of
100/1 outsider Norton’s Coin in the 1990 Cheltenham Gold Cup was
reported in the ‘Racing Post’ the following day under the
headline ‘Shock of the Century’. In a real-life rags-to-riches
story to rival the fictional ‘National Velvet’, Norton’s Coin
was bred, owned and trained by Sirrell Griffiths, a permit-holder
from Carmarthenshire in West Wales, who had just three horses at the
time. Griffiths had originally intended to run Norton’s Coin in a
handicap chase, but failed to declare the nine-year-old. He opted for
the Gold Cup instead when he learned that Jenny Pitman intended to
run a horse that Norton’s Coin had beaten, seeking to finish in the
first five or six to recoup his entry fee.
Despite his
eye-watering starting price, Norton’s Coin never gave his
supporters – not that he had many – an anxious moment. On the
prevailing good to firm going, he was always travelling well under
jockey Graham McCourt and, having taken the lead on the infamously
stiff ‘Cheltenham Hill’, battled on to hold third-favourite Toby
Tobias by three-quarters of a length. Defending champion, and odds-on
favourite, Desert Orchid finished third, a further four lengths away,
and the winning time, 6 minutes 30.9 seconds.