Heavenly Heather, well-beaten in four of her five starts, upset the BetMGM Fillies’ And Mares’ Championships Handicap on the all-weather track at Newcastle in England April 18. And what an upset it was.
The filly was almost 200-to-1 on the Woodbine Entertainment platform HPIBet.com. She paid $398 to win.
Trained by Tracy Waggott, Heavenly Heather, named for one of the co-owners late mothers, had post 14, but jockey Amie Waught “made great use of her draw in stall 14, sticking to the favoured rail in winning by half a length from Aramis Gre,” wrote RacingTV.
Described by her trainer as a big, heavy filly who has needed racing to get fit, Heavenly Heather landed on television news and in the sports pages following her win. She is a daughter of Shamardal and was bred by Godolphin.
Biggest-priced winners in British Flat racing history All 200-1
Theodore Doncaster (St Leger), 1822
Beechy Bank Warwick, 2002
Dandy Flame Wolverhampton, 2016
Intercessor Newbury, 2020
Runninwild Redcar, 2021
Astapor Hamilton, 2022
Heavenly Heather Newcastle, 2025
In North America, however, when simulcast wagering was introduced and tracks had their separate pools on races brought in, the win payoff record is much higher.
It was on Dec. 8, 1989, when Power to Geaux was racing at Fair Grounds in New Orleans. Simulcast wagering had just begun at several tracks around the country, but in those days the pools were not comingled with the originating track. A $2 wager made on Power to Geaux to win was made at Ak-Sar-Ben racetrack in Omaha, Neb., as part of that track’s simulcasting. There was only one $2 win ticket sold on Power to Geaux in the Ak-Sar-Ben simulcasting and one lucky patron was paid $2,922 to win on the $2 win ticket. If you don’t count simulcasting, the largest payout of a $2 win ticket before that was $1,885.50 on Wishing Ring at Latonia in Kentucky on June 17, 1912.
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