DEFYING THE ODDS

BETFRED, OFFICIAL SUPPLIER

It’s one thing backing a winner at Royal Ascot. It’s quite another when that victory is at record-breaking odds. Last year, Valiant Force joined the ranks of legend when he took the Norfolk Stakes at a price of 150/1 – the joint-highest winning starting price in the history of the Royal Meeting. But his triumph was certainly not the first shock we’ve had on Ascot’s treasured turf…

2020 – Nando Parrado (150/1)

That 150/1 record was set just three years earlier in another of the two-year-old races at Royal Ascot. Nando Parrado had finished an unfancied fifth on debut before lining up for the Coventry Stakes 16 days later. Always prominent under Adam Kirby, he held off the late challenge of Qaader to rewrite the record books. This would be his only win before heading to stud, though he did twice finish second in Group 1 company subsequently.

2008 – Flashmans Papers (100/1)

It’s clear by now that the juvenile races at Royal Ascot, with plenty of untapped potential, are ripe for shocks. Flashmans Papers had twice finished placed in maiden company before the 2008 Windsor Castle Stakes – he left that form well behind when running on late to deny favourite Bushranger, winning at odds of 100/1. He’d finish fourth in the Norfolk Stakes two days later at far shorter odds of 10/1. His Royal Ascot win would be the only victory of his career.

1990 – Fox Chapel (100/1)

The first ever triple-figure winner at the Royal Meeting came in the Britannia Handicap, a race over a mile for three-yearolds, in 1990. Fox Chapel had been beaten a total of 25 lengths in his previous two races that season, and started this race at 100/1 from 1lb out of the handicap, with jockey

Gary Hind also putting up 5lb overweight. But this new trip, and softer ground, seemingly brought out the best in him –this was his second, and final, victory on the flat.

2023 – Khaadem (80/1)

If a 150/1 winner wasn’t enough last year, the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes threw up an 80/1 victor in Khaadem. The seven-year-old had never finished in the first three in a Group 1 before, and had raced at Ascot three times previously without victory, coming home in fourth in this race in 2020. This time, under a typically patient Jamie Spencer, he ran on late to overhaul fillies Sacred and Highfield Princess, in doing so bagging the biggest triumph of his career.

2009 – Cosmic Sun (66/1)

A ten-race maiden with a disappointing ninth-placed finish over the mile-and-a-half distance last time out, Cosmic Sun was understandably unfancied for the 2009 King George V Stakes, especially from 3lb out of the handicap. But at 66/1 Paul Hanagan guided him to his first victory on the biggest stage in British racing – favourite Zarinski was fourth. Cosmic Sun would gain five more wins in his career, though this was by far his biggest in terms of prize money.

1996 – Amfortas (66/1)

The Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes of 1996 featured jointfavourites in Shantou, third in the Derby two weeks earlier, and Prize Giving, second in a Listed race at Goodwood last time out. When Amfortas – beaten a total of 49 lengths in his three career starts – set out to make the running, there can’t have been too much panic. But he defied his odds of 66/1 to hold off all-comers and record a famous victory. He’d have just one more race, trailing home last in the Irish Derby.

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