Intercessor Smashes 200/1 Odds Becoming Joint Flat Racing Long Odds Win Record Holder

Intercessor, a John Gallagher trained horse ridden by Cieren Fallon, became the joint longest priced winner in flat racing when he defeated a field of ten at Newbury, on the 13th of June 2020.

Priced at 200/1, no one was expecting such a result, and it’s fair to say even his trainer was shocked.

Gallacgher said:

“I’d be lying if I said I expected that. The thing is, he gets a bit lit up and buzzy at home. We ran him last year just because we needed to run him. He’s a big strong horse, they gave him a soft lead and he just galloped along. To be fair he picked up.”

Despite running well at his Moreton-in-Marsh training ground, no one could have predicted a win at this stage in the horse’s career.

In his first race, Intercessor finished 6th of 7 and a massive 26 lengths behind the winner. However, he was then gelded and had almost a year away from the track before coming back for his incredible race at Newbury.

Gelding wasn’t a magic bullet though, since the horse only managed a single place from his next 8 races, before notching up his second win over a year later.

Nevertheless, at Newbury he was a hero. Intercessor led for practically the entire race, and despite being strongly challenged from 3 furlongs out, maintained his lead and beat the favourite by a head.

There are no known big winners from the race, although John Gallagher let slip that the owner had an each way wager on Intercessor, so will have made a bit from that as well as their share of the £3.5k in prize money. The owner couldn’t confirm this himself, as according to sources he was too excited to speak any sense. It’s understandable, apparently he bred the horse himself, so it must have been an emotional moment for him.

Incredibly, betting exchange punters had been able to back Intercessor at as much as 611/1 at one point, but again, it is not known if anyone took it.