Jockey grins: 'I'm not that surprised' after crazy 200-1 winner

A JOCKEY who rode a strange 200-1 outsider to victory grinned: “I'm not that surprised.”

Stan Sheppard was brilliant in the saddle as he lured Absolute Steel to the mother of all shocks in Exeter on Sunday.

The Tom Lacey-trained five-year-old gelding had beaten just one horse in two previous runs, losing a total of 111 lengths.

Odds of 200-1 or a massive 813-1 on the Betfair Exchange told the story of what was expected.

Although Sheppard clearly hadn't read the script.

He lured a lingering Absolute Steel into the Exeter run-in to win 4-9 favorite Lowry's Bar in dramatic circumstances.

And an incredible £453 was matched to the winner at maximum odds of 1,000 on the Exchange – meaning there was £453,000 riding on the horse as he approached the line.

However, spare a thought for one punter, who tried to get £4 on Absolute Steel in-running at odds of 970, but for a paltry 1p.

It meant that instead of winning almost £4,000, they were left with just £9.69.

Yet that didn't matter to Sheppard, who said after securing the joint most expensive winner in British racing for 34 years: “I would say the favorite may have underperformed, but while I'm surprised, I'm not that surprised .

“He had a good look at the first three obstacles on the home straight, but as I ran towards the last one I thought 'if the favorite gets past me within five paces of the line, I might not get back to him'.

“But when he came to me he picked it up again.”

The horse's delighted owners, Value Racing Club, wrote online: “Was it a surprise that he did what he did? Absolutely not.

'He's a nice horse. Big, retarded and green as grass.'

Absolute Steel became the tenth British winner at odds of 200-1.

Inspiratrice was the most recent to do so, storming to victory at Taunton Racecourse in December 2022, just 45 minutes down the road from Exeter.

But the record remains Equinoctial, who won 250-1 at Kelso in November 1990.

He Knows No Fear and Sawbuck hold the record in Ireland with a win of 300-1.

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