CHELTENHAM Festival hero Stay Away Fay hit a monster 179-1 in-running before leaving punters breathless with an amazing finish.
Bookies slashed Paul Nicholls’ star novice chaser after he came back from the dead at Exeter.
Harry Cobden looked to be putting in a near-perfect round of jumping on last year’s Albert Bartlett winner.
But suddenly the six-year-old appeared out of puff as Dan Skelton on Grey Dawning and Joe Tizzard on The Changing Man cruised past.
It was then, with Cobden bouncing in the saddle and seemingly beat, that Stay Away Fay hit a huge price on the Betfair Exchange.
The 180 was matched as was 130.
But then the supreme stayer found a second wind to surge home over the 3m trip and win comfortably at 5-6 from 13-2 The Changing Man.
Bookies were quick to slash Stay Away Fay for the 3m6f National Hunt Chase at the Festival going from 14s to 8s.
While he remained a 10-1 chance with Betfair for the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase.
Although expect that price to go with Nicholls confirming the horse ‘too classy’ for the NH Chase.
He told Racing TV: “The future’s bright for him over fences, it’s exciting.
“He stays on strongly and did it at Cheltenham too, he gallops on strongly and that’s what you want.
“We’ve given him lots of time to mature and all the time he’s is paying off.
“There’s a new novice chase on Sandown Tingle Creek meeting worth £60,000 so he’ll go there.
“Then he’ll go to Kempton and have a break – if he runs in all three including here that could be it before Cheltenham.
“That was a good performance today and there’s lots more to come from him as he grows up, he’s an exciting horse.”
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