Longest starting price

[Marlingford]

The thread about shortest starting prices has got me wondering – what is the longest starting price a horse has ever had? I’m not just talking about winners here.

I’m aware of plenty of cases of an SP of 500/1; Terimon finished second in the Derby at this price for example. Has there even been a higher SP?

One of Ted Caine’s horses, Countess Crossett, made the news for being priced at 5000/1 on course back in the 1990s, but her SP was still a mere 500/1.

[IanDavies]

Horses often start at 1000 (999/1 – well, 949/1 after 5% commission) on Betfair Exchange these past 20 years, do they count?

He Knows No Fear (300/1) is the longest SP winner I can, err, “remember?”

No, Ian, “Googling” and “remembering” are two different things.

Oh, ok – that I’ve googled, then!

No idea on overall SPs but, with most books wired up to hedge on Betfair, I’d imagine 500/1 would be as high as they would go.

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[Marlingford]

Thanks Ian, am not including Betfair.

Googling is fine by me if it helps, though I couldn’t find much! I’m just curious about the answer, not testing people’s memories

[patriot1]

Someone with more knowledge than me could maybe confirm but there appeared to be a lot more winners at 100-1 or more during the behind closed doors racing when the bookies were providing the prices.

Does this mean that more big priced outsiders led to more shorter priced fancied horses during that period.

[Cork All Star]

Holmbury had an SP of 1,000-1 in the 1983 Derby, won by Teenoso.

[Marlingford]

Thanks Cork All Star. I suspected if it was going to occur anywhere it would be in one of the big races where some of the entries are just so connections can have taken part in the big day.

[Cork All Star]

I had to check Wikipedia to make sure! I remember it because it was the first Derby my father let me have a bet on – 20p on Salmon Leap, who finished fourth. I don’t expect he put the bet on with the bookies and just stood it himself!

Holmbury was trained by Geoff Huffer. Despite his huge price, he did not finish last. He was 19th of 21 runners. Yawa unseated his rider, so in effect he only beat one home – Zoffany, trained by Guy Harwood and ridden by Greville Starkey.

I am sure when I was growing up there were plenty of 500-1 chances in the Grand National, back in the days when there were plenty of plodders running from out of the handicap.

[Marlingford]

I probably had my first bet at a similar time, and for a similar amount, though it would have been on the Grand National! There certainly were a lot more big outsiders in the race back then as you say.

In more recent times I was thinking if any horses had been bigger than 500/1 it might be some of the rather speculative entries by Fergus & Judith Wilson, but I couldn’t find any that were higher than this price.

[Richard88]

I vaguely recall punting a tiny amount each way on a horse at Cheltenham at 2,000/1 on the early prices (might even have been the GC but either way it ended up at a standard outsider’s price). My reasoning being that whilst clearly it needed everything else to fall over to win, that might happen once if you ran the race 2,000 times. Of course the race turned out to be one of the other 1,999…

[Marlingford]

Thanks Richard88. Must have been your money that caused the price to contract!

[Green]

Thanks Richard88. Must have been your money that caused the price to contract!

Very good Marlingford

There seems to be quite a few runners at 500/1 but nothing bigger. I wonder if 500/1 is the maximum odds available in the on-course bookies’ software?

[Marlingford]

I do wonder about that Green, you could well be right. Things were no doubt very different back in 1983 when Holmbury was actually 1000/1.

More recently, Diore Lia was being described as a 1000/1 outsider before the 2017 Derby, but she ended up as a non-runner, which does not help much!

[Richard88]

Thanks Richard88. Must have been your money that caused the price to contract!

Haha we’ll never know. Having had a quick look I believe the horse in question may been Cerium who completed the course in both the GC and National in 2009 and 2010 including a respectable fifth in the GN. 11th of 16 (300/1), 5th of 40 (100/1), 8th of 11 (200/1) and 11th of 40 (50/1) respectively. I was only eight fallers from a 500/1 place

[Salut A Toi]

I think when August was used as a pacemaker for Rainbow Quest he was sent off at 1000/1 on at least one occasion – would have been in 1984 and I’ll have to go in to the shed to find the superform annual for that year to confirm it unless anyone else remembers this.

[Marlingford]

Thanks for the further replies. Good old Cerium, I remember him well.

Salut A Toi, as you can probably guess, I am interested in any info you have, but please don’t go to any trouble

[Anonymous]

I reckon you’ve got the ‘dullest thread of the year’ award in the bag, Marlo

[Marlingford]

I don’t get it. This is a racing forum and my thread is about racing. If you don’t like the thread just ignore it. Why be nasty?

This is the third unprovoked comment you’ve made to me recently. Please stop it.

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