
By contrast, in 1990, Norton’s Coin, one of just three horses trained by Carmarthen permit holder Sirrell Griffiths, was the longest-priced winner in the history of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. ‘More a candidate for last than first’, at least according to the official Cheltenham racecard on the day, the nine-year-old defied odds of 100/1 to beat Toby Tobias and defending champion Desert by three-quarters of a length and four lengths, breaking the course record in the process.
In 1954, Sir Ken, trained by Willie
Stephenson, became only the second horse – after Hatton’s Grace –
to win the Champion Hurdle three times a row. He started favourite on
all three occasions but, in 1953, he was sent off at 2/5, making him
the shortest-priced winner in the history of the race. At the other
end of the scale, Kirriemuir, trained by Fulke Walwyn, popped up at
50/1 in 1965, as did Beech Road, trained by Toby Balding, in 1989;
they share the spoils as the joint-longest-priced winners.
The Stayers’ Hurdle – or ‘World
Hurdle’, as it was known for a while – was first run, in its
current guise, in 1972. Since then, Big Buck’s, who won the race
four consecutive times, in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, was twice
returned at odds of 5/6, in 2010 and 2012, making him the
shortest-priced winner of the modern era. In 1983, BBC pundit
announced that he would ‘eat his hat’ if A Kinsman, trained by
Cumbrian farmer John Brockbank, won the Stayers’ Hurdle.
Nevertheless, A Kinsman duly obliged, at 50/1, to become the
longest-priced winner in the history of the race.