THE IRISH domination of Cheltenham Festival continued apace with an incredible 999-1 in-running winner.
Mount Ida was tailed off, out with the washing, with her odds for the Kim Muir out to a whopping 999-1.
Over £100 quid was matched at those odds and slowly, but surely the pre-race favourite started to pick them off.
From being scrubbed along much of the way and looking like she might even be pulled-up, Denise Foster’s horse found her rhythm as the race progressed.
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Soon jockey Jack Kennedy went from zero to hero as he swung into the straight with plenty of petrol under the bonnet.
A steady couple of jumps at the business end of the race and suddenly everything was much more straightforward.
Betfair’s – where the odds were matched – Barry Orr, said: “Mount Ida made an incredible comeback after being matched at 1000.0 for £102.
“It looked almost certain to be pulled up by Jack Kennedy at the top of the hill first time around however was coaxed into the race by Jack.”
The winning jockey admitted after the race he was close to pulling up the winner, but the horse came good just in the nick of time.
Kennedy said: “She wasn’t helping me a lot early on! I think it was a bit of a shock to her system.
“She’d been running in small fields and there was a ferocious gallop on.
“I got a bit of a fright, but to be fair to her, she started jumping and even though it was nearly tailed-off at one point I still managed to get there too soon!
“It crossed my mind to pull her up, but to be fair to her she was brilliant in the end.”
Jockey of the moment Rachael Blackmore took a crunching fall in the race but got up fine.
She leads the jockey standings with an incredible five winners already to her name and is now just 1-6 to hold off Paul Townend.
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