Blowers, a horse named after the legendary cricket commentator, Henry Blofeld, earned an entry in the racing history books at Exeter on Thursday as he became the longest-priced winner ever on a British track at odds of 300-1.

Blowers finished three-quarters of a length in front of the 5-4 favourite, On The Bayou, in the card’s opening race, with James Bowen, his jockey, as surprised as anyone by the win as he had been drafted in as a late replacement for Ella Herbison, who was caught in traffic and missed her flight from Ireland.

Nigel Hawke’s five-year-old had been pulled up at 200-1 on his most recent start at Chepstow, but he enjoyed the testing conditions at the west country track after significant rain before racing and made all the running on the way to his shock success.

The winner replaces Equinoctial, a 250-1 winner at Kelso in 1990, as the longest-priced winner in British racing history, and shares the record for the most unlikely victory in Britain or Ireland with Sawbuck and He Knows No Fear, winners at 300-1 at Punchestown and Leopardstown respectively in 2022 and 2020.

Coral bookmakers reported taking 82 bets on Blowers, with the biggest being £2 each-way, while Paddy Power reported just two winning bets, of £15 each-way and £10 each-way.

“I wish, I wish, I wish,” was Hawke’s response when asked if he had backed his record-breaking winner. “I was a little surprised at his price but I guess it’s the way the markets go,” the trainer added. “He’d only run twice in his life and he ran in a [point-to-point] race at Larkhill where they did back him that day but his breathing was a problem.

“I think 300-1 was a bit ridiculous to be fair, and I’m not saying we knew what we had but we knew we had a horse with some ability and the owners always breed a nice type of horse.”

Bowen was on his way to ride out at a yard in the west country early on Thursday morning when he received a call from Herbison to ask if he would take the ride on Blowers. “A random unknown Irish number rang me,” he said. “Sometimes I don’t answer and I didn’t know who it was.

“It was Ella. ‘Do you want to ride one in the first at Exeter?’ Sadly, she got stuck in traffic and didn’t make her flight. Plan A was to drop in last but then we though he might relax better in front. He’s clearly handled the ground, got in a nice rhythm and thank you to all connections.”