Horse Racing - Cheltenham Festival - Cheltenham Racecourse, Cheltenham, Britain - March 14, 2025 Jonjo O'Neill Jr riding Poniros celebrates after winning the 13:20 JCB Triumph Hurdle REUTERS/Peter Cziborra
CHELTENHAM, England (Reuters) - Poniros, a 100/1 jumps debutant owned by the big-betting chairman of Premier League Brighton & Hove Albion and ridden by a jockey who had planned to be elsewhere, stunned Cheltenham with an opening win on Gold Cup Friday.
Trained by Willie Mullins, former flat racer Poniros pipped Lulamba (11/4) and favourite East India Dock (5/4) in a fourth successive Triumph Hurdle success for the Irishman.
He was the longest-priced winner in the history of the Grade One race for juvenile novice hurdlers on the fourth and final day of the festival.
"It's a funny old game, I was meant to be at Doncaster today," said jockey Jonjo O'Neill Jr after a stirring finish in Brighton chairman and owner Tony Bloom's blue and white colours.
"My agent said that Willie was looking for a jockey. He actually said I should stay in Doncaster but I said the way this week is going... anything of Willie's has a chance.
"That's his first appearance in public over hurdles. What a place to do it."
Bloom, famed for big bets on sport, picked up 84,405 pounds ($109,194) in prize money in addition to any wager he might have made on his horse.
That more than made up for Wednesday when, according to British media reports, Bloom splashed 50,000 pounds on his 6/1 shot Energumene to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase only for the horse to pull up before the finish.
($1 = 0.7730 pounds)
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Toby Davis)
