Formerly a blank day on the racing calendar, Good Friday is now firmly established as the centrepiece of the all-weather season. First run in 2013, All-Weather Championships Finals Day now offers over £1million in total prize money across the seven-race card.
With valuable events on offer for three-year-olds, fillies and mares, milers, sprinters, stayers, and middle-distance stars, the meeting provides a springtime target for all. Hugely popular with trainers and owners, the fixture is also a big hit with punters. In 2025, the much-loved meeting headed to the Tapeta track at Newcastle. Whilst several results were fairly predictable, one, in particular, left most punters scratching their heads.
Heavenly Result for Local Yard
“Heavenly Heather’s unthinkable success will provide an additional shining incentive to all those who dare to dream!”@SimonMapletoft reflects on a pulsating @awchamps Finals Day at @NewcastleRaces on Good Friday…
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) April 20, 2025
With the James Fanshaw-trained Glittering Legend landing the opening Burradon Stakes at 9/2 and market leader Berkshire Whisper claiming race 2 for Andrew Balding, many punters at the track found themselves off to a solid start. However, anyone siding with the fancied contenders in the BetMGM Fillies’ And Mares’ Championships Handicap had little choice but to send their scrunched-up betting slip hurtling towards the nearest dustbin.
Having scored nicely over course and distance on her previous outing, the James Tate-trained Cloud Cover looked like a solid 11/8 favourite. Other obvious contenders included Lingfield winner Quandary, three-time Newcastle winner Brazilian Rose, and the consistent all-weather star Aramis Grey.
200/1 Odds Wins by a Half Length
With a plethora of viable contenders, Heavenly Heather received barely a mention in the lead-up to the race. Here we had a filly who had lost all five previous outings by a combined distance of 48 lengths. Given those less-than-stellar performances, the four-year-old understandably carried bottom weight for the occasion. However, with the handicapper unable to assign less than 7st13lb, she carried 19lb more than her lowly rating suggested she should. A winner in waiting? The market certainly didn’t think so, with the mount of Amie Waugh starting at the astronomical odds of 200/1.
Fast forward to the final furlong, and a win still didn’t appear particularly likely. Brazilian Rose moved a couple of lengths clear of the field, pursued by Shallow and Powdering, with Aramis Grey beginning her charge on the far side. However, it soon became clear that the line would not come in time for Brazilian Rose. With the runs of Shallow and Powdering petering out, Heavenly Heather began to make relentless progress up the stands rail. Inside the final 50 yards, the improbable became a reality as Heavenly Heather got up to score by a cosy half-length.
Performance Surpasses Trainers Expectations
Whilst you could have heard a pin drop at the track, Heavenly Heather did not go unbacked, with Coral reporting over 400 win singles on the unlikely star. A very Good Friday for those punters and for locally-based trainer Tracy Waggott, who labelled this result as her “best day”.
In outlining the decision to aim for this lofty prize, Waggott stated:
We always knew she was a really good horse. It was just getting her fit enough. She’s such a big, heavy mare. She takes that much work getting fit. She needed the race before and has been green and backward. She’s had loads of graft in the last month.
Even with that positive opinion in mind, Waggott believed the £2,265 on offer for sixth represented the most realistic target, “Watching the race, I was cheering ‘go on, get sixth’”. Of course, Heavenly Heather fared rather better than that, scooping £77,310 for top spot and recording a handsome profit on the £750 entry fee.
Joint Biggest Price in British Flat Racing History
You might imagine that 200/1 winners don’t come around every day. You would be correct in that assumption. Stats from Online Bookies Offers suggests that only six horses have defied such lofty odds in the history of British flat racing.
Theodore was the first member of the 200/1 club when stunning the watching world in the 1822 St Leger. Interestingly, the subsequent five have all come in the current century, with Heavenly Heather joining Beechy Bank (2002), Dandy Flame (2016), Intercessor (2020), Runninwild (2021), and Astapor (2022).