Killahara Castle had never won a race in her life. In fact, in the 20 races she had run previously she had barely even placed.
The horse must have sensed that her racing career was coming to an end, because when her penultimate race came along, at Thurles, she gave the performance of her life.
She also waited until she was priced at her longest ever odds: 200/1.
It was only a 6 horse race to be fair, so Killahara Castle wasn’t exactly achieving the impossible, but nobody thought it would happen.
She started out to the rear, then began closing in to end up 3rd two out. She stayed on well then pushed into the lead approaching the last before widening the gap to comfortably win the race by 5 lengths.
You can see the end of the race here:
Killahara Castle – a Listed winner at 200/1 at @thurlesraces! pic.twitter.com/UYwilQvcQB
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) December 17, 2017
The commentator may not have sounded all that enthusiastic but the jockey, trainer, and owner were.
It was a family affair, with John Burke training the horse, which was owned by his sister, Elaine, and ridden by his brother, Martin, who said of the horse:
“The smaller field suited her as well, as she is usually really keen but settled lovely today and everything went right.”
The 200/1 win was not only massive for them, but it was the first time a winner had come in at such long odds in the history of racing in Ireland.
The 6 year old horse would only race one more time after that, coming 10th of 11 at Fairyhouse a month after making history at Thurles. She was retired after that, but at least she managed to get Listed honours once before her career came to an end.