Willie Mullins favourite fails to fire as 250-1 shock opens final day of harvest festival

The final day of Listowel's harvest festival started with an enormous shock as Kingdom Calling landed the maiden hurdle at odds of 250-1.

Willie Mullins had been expected to take the 2m contest with Korea, but the favourite was weak in the market, going off 11-8 having opened up at 4-9, and faded in the straight after a noticeable blunder at the penultimate hurdle to finish eighth.

The Gavin Cromwell-trained Kazakh D'Arthel appeared set to capitalise, but the 5-2 second favourite was reeled in after the last by outsider Kingdom Calling, who won by half a length.

Trained by Eoin McCarthy, who is based near Listowel in Athea, the four-year-old had failed to make an impact in his first three starts. He was beaten 30 lengths and 95 lengths into seventh and tenth respectively in bumpers.

He fared little better on his debut hurdle outing at Tramore ten days ago, finishing ninth, beaten 47 lengths, as an unfancied 66-1 shot, so this represented a major upturn in fortunes under new partner Richie Deegan.

McCarthy said: "I'm delighted as he had been making a fool out of me last year and is a lovely horse going forward and I think he will improve.

"We thought he was a bumper horse last year but he was running too keen and was petering out at the back-end of his races. The last day in Tramore, Philip Enright got him to relax, to breathe and do everything right but he thought mentally he was still childish.’"

Kingdom Calling is the third longest-priced winner on record in Ireland. He Knows No Fear won a mile maiden at Leopardstown in August 2020 after being sent off at 300-1, a feat which was matched less than two years later when Sawbuck claimed a Punchestown maiden hurdle in May 2022 at the same extraordinary price.

There have been five instances of horses winning at 200-1 in Ireland, most recently when Brave Crogha emerged on top in a bumper at the Galway festival last month.

Longest-priced winners trained in Ireland

300-1 He Knows No Fear. Leopardstown (Flat) 13/8/2020
300-1 Sawbuck, Punchestown (hurdles) 24/5/2022
250-1 Kingdom Calling, Listowel (hurdles) 28/9/2024
200-1 Killahara Castle, Thurles (hurdles) 17/12/2017
200-1 Unklipped, Kilbeggan, (hurdles) 19/6/2023
200-1 Navajo River, Roscommon, (Flat) 22/8/2023
200-1 King Of The Bronx, Gowran Park (Flat) 9/5/2024
200-1 Brave Crogha, Galway (bumper) 1/8/2024

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