Credit: Nicolas de Cameret Flickr
Royal Ascot is one of the biggest events on the horse racing calendar, and at 5 days long, it’s also one of the longest horse racing festivals in the country.
Slap bang in the middle of the 2023 festival, on day 3 which was the 22nd June, one of the most exciting results in recent history took place.
A horse called Valiant Force, priced at 150/1, won the Norfolk Stakes. He only managed to nab it by a little over a length, but nevertheless, the apple cart was well and truly upset.
What’s more, it sounds like the bookies were having an off day when pricing him up. Despite the horse being inexperienced, the young colt had done well in his first outing.
Adrian Murray, Valiant Force’s trainer, said:
“We knew he was a nice horse and we couldn’t believe the price. He was only beaten half a length by His Majesty first time out and he was 150-1 today, it just didn’t make sense! I knew he was much better than that. It’s the stuff of dreams. It’s great for the small man.”
So if anyone else spotted these very favourable odds they will have been quids, in too. The horse that came 2nd was priced at 66/1, so whoever set the odds for that one clearly needs a holiday.
At 5 furlongs the Norfolk Stakes is only a short race, and the 14 runners split into two groups early on. Valiant Force was part of the outside group and took the lead just before 1 furlong out, then held it all the way to the finish.
A simple race in many ways but certainly no walkover as you can see.
This was Adrian Murray’s first ever win at the festival, as well as that of the ownership group, Amo Racing for Kia Joorabchian. Rossa Ryan was in the saddle.