ASCOT, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 18: Jamie Spencer riding Powerful Glory (R, yellow) win The Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakesat Ascot Racecourse on October 18, 2025 in Ascot, England. (Photo by Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images)
A 200-1 chance called Powerful Glory won the Champions Sprint Stakes at the UK’s end-of-season prestige race meeting at Ascot on Saturday – becoming the longest-price winner of a Group 1 race in Europe since the Pattern system was introduced in 1971.
How could punters find a longshot like that?
Not easily, admittedly, but it wasn’t impossible. John Harrison, who tips for the Sheffield Star, made Powerful Glory his nap selection.
Powerful Glory was in the “relatively unexposed” file before the 1200m Sprint Stakes, having only had four runs: two impressive wins as a juvenile, a disappointing return after a break, then a windpipe operation, then a comeback run in which he finished last.
The key facts were the surgery and the subsequent prep outing. In that last effort, Powerful Glory might have been last but was only three lengths off the winner, running on powerfully.
Then there was the booking of jockey Jamie Spencer, known as the wizard of Ascot’s straight course.
Harrison explained his nap: “I followed Powerful Glory as a two-year-old and thought he was impressive… With the comeback run … under his belt after wind surgery, and the step up to six furlongs on better ground a positive, I thought he was fair value at 66-1 on Friday with the sprint division being so volatile and unpredictable.
“I wasn’t expecting to see him return 200-1 and become the biggest-priced winner in Group 1 history, however.”
Trainer Richard Fahey described it as “a Spencer special”.
“It was the plan all year, genuinely. We had a blip halfway through and we had to stop with him, and we were running out of races.
“Did I think he would come here and win? I thought he would need to be at his very best because he’s still an immature horse because he’s only had four runs… I thought Jamie would suit him well, just get him to relax and leave him alone.”
Spencer was drawn next to an habitual pacemaker, so had a target to follow.
“I thought I was going to be placed then, all of a sudden, I thought ‘I’ve got a chance’,” said Spencer. “He jinked a little bit left and I put my whip away, and we’ve held on… He was a good two-year-old and lost his way… This morning he was 80-1 … so we were not without a chance. You never know in this game, it’s a fantastic sport.”
You’d have to be adventurous to have sided with Powerful Glory, but he did have arguments in his favour.
Punting lessons learnt: the value of digging into nitty gritty detail of form and resisting the urge to always follow the money.
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