British Champions Day: Powerful Glory brings 200-1 sprint shock under Jamie Spencer | Horse Racing News
Powerful Glory stunned the field at Ascot with an astonishing 200-1 win in the Kipco British Champions Sprint Stakes.
Richard Fahey’s 3-year-old, ridden by Jamie Spencer, weighed 20 pounds against his G1 rivals and was completely ignored by the market.
Razat looked set to storm home as a 2-1 favorite under manager James Doyle, but Powerful Glory closed the gap significantly behind him and took the lead to become Britain’s richest Group 1 winner since the current classification system was established.
Powerful Glory won by a neck, and Quinault, who had 66 wins and 1 loss, won by one and a quarter lengths.
Fahey said: “This is something special. I thought Jamie was a good fit for him. It was just to get him off and relax and I felt like he was going to get there.”
“To be fair, this was really the plan all year. There was a blip in the middle when I had to stop with him and of course I lost the race, but this is great.”
“I’m happy for Richard Brown (Wassnan Racing advisor). He bought him, he’s bought the last few Group 1 winners, and he’s doing a good job of pushing me forward. Sheikh Rashid (Darmook Al Maktoum) has also been good to us, but he hasn’t had a great season this year, so this will help. We’re all happy.”
“He has really made excuses for his two starts this year and we saw some real Power Glory today. There may be more in the future but we’ll have to talk to Sheikh Rashid and see what the plans are. It’s been a difficult year so it’s great to finish with a Group 1 winner.”
“I’ve known Richard for a long time so it’s great to be able to do it for him. I saw this morning he was 80-1 and I remembered that Kardem was 80-1 when he won here. You never know,” added the winning rider.
“I never dreamed he would win after finishing last in the Beverley condition race, but that’s what good trainers do, they turn the screws.
“When he was two out, I thought he was going to have a good race, but as the race went on I had different feelings because all of a sudden I felt like we had a chance to win.
“I don’t think there’s going to be another 200-1 winner because I don’t have much of a way to go.”
“There were 19 runners and horses everywhere and James said he could have won if there was only one group, but he was running alone on the opposite side of the course and it wasn’t easy to control his effort,” said Jerome Rainier, trainer of the runner-up.
“He kept running and fighting hard and today we saw a real razzatto, but it wasn’t ideal as the horses were spread out across the field and we couldn’t get the advantage of the horses being on the stand rails.
“James threw him forward and asked him to move far from home, and he ran well, but unfortunately there was one too good. The winner was unexpected, but this is a race, and sprint races often have interesting results. Unlike with Stayer, it’s not that Trollman knows he’s going to win because he’s the best.”
“He’s a really tough horse. He won here at Royal Ascot, came second in the Maurice de Geest and was second today in the Champions Sprint. He’s probably the best sprinter in Europe.”
Regarding his future plans, Rainier added: “He will take some time off and then we would like to go to Saudi Arabia. There are some options on the international stage, such as Saudi Arabia and Al Quoz in Dubai, but for the first few months there will not be much movement in Europe, so we will talk to the relevant parties and come up with a plan.”
“We were very happy and excited with two furlongs to go. He ran a monster race,” said Stuart Williams, trainer of third place Quinault.
“He’s been racing since February so he’s going to take a break now. He’s a superstar horse for us and we hope he’ll be successful next year.”
“This is a career best and we might take him abroad. I would love to take him to Saudi Arabia and I think it would be a good fit for him. Last year he wasn’t invited, but after that I hope they invite him.”
