Unklipped joins select longshot club after springing huge 200-1 shock at Kilbeggan

There was a major shock in the opening maiden hurdle as Denis Leahy's Unklipped joined an exclusive club of horses who have won at odds of 200-1.

Only three winners, two at 300-1 and another at 250-1, have returned at bigger odds in Britain and Ireland since Racing Post records began.

Unklipped's enormous starting price seemed warranted beforehand given the five-year-old mare had form figures of 000U and had been beaten on her three completed starts by a combined 160 lengths.

But she travelled comfortably under amateur Cal Shine in mid-division throughout the 2m contest and crept into third just before the second-last.

Aeros Luck swept to the front but Unklipped continued to make powerful progress and jumped the last alongside the Gavin Cromwell-trained gelding before galloping away on the short run-in to record an astonishing victory by two and a half lengths. It was Shine's first winner under rules.

Speaking to Racing TV, an elated Leahy said: "Her owner Heather Buckle came over this morning and I did tell her it will happen for her some day but the penny wasn't clicking with her. Cal was good and positive. John Barry put Cal in for the ride as he said you need a good, hardy guy and Cal was on the ball."

Asked whether Buckle had taken some of the lavish odds on offer, Leahy said: "No, but I think her son did! Heather has a son who rides as an amateur in England and I did ask him if he wanted to ride but he couldn't do the weight, so he'll be kicking himself. I'm absolutely delighted and it's nice that Heather came. 

"We train very few – we probably only have three or four for the summer. We are pre-trainers, that's what we do normally."

It was the yard's second winner in 2023.

Shine told Racing TV: "Denis rang me on Friday and said she is more than capable. Her second-last run was on softer ground in Tipperary. She's a proper good-ground mare and the tight track suited her. We got away handy and the race worked out well.

"She will improve and jump a fence too."

He Knows No Fear won at 300-1 at Leopardstown in August 2020, a starting price matched by Sawbuck at Punchestown in May 2022.

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