A GENIUS punter was just one win away from £1.7million – but still bagged a whopping £205,000 from a £25 bet.
The bettor did a 10p ‘goliath’ bet with William Hill for Saturday’s racing in the UK.
The bet took in eight selections overall and mixed them together in a variety of ways, including 28 doubles and 56 trebles.
The ‘goliath’ bet is made up 247 lines all in all, so a £1 stake on each one would mean a £247 stake.
Given the amount of cash at risk, this shrewd punter did just 10p on each selection, meaning a total stake of £24.70.
And they watched the pot of cash build as the horses came in, only for one to ruin a mammoth pay out.
First up was Thegreyvtrain who won the 12.50 at Lingfield at 15-2.
Then the Harry Fry-trained Sir Ivan won by one-and-a-half lengths at 8-1 in the 1.15 at Newbury.
Just 35 minutes later it was the turn of fellow 8-1 chance Umbrigado to oblige at Newbury, winning by one length from Killer Clown.
Next, the Paul Nicholls-trained Flash Collonges won by six-and-a-half lengths under Harry Cobden in the 2.05 at Kelso at 6-1.
Then it was over to Doncaster, where another Nicholls runner Getaway Trump trounced his rivals at odds of 11-2.
Iron Heart won the 3.05 at Newbury at odds of 11-2 as well, prevailing by just a neck for jockey Fergus Gillard.
The only horse not to win in the bet came next, when 13-2 chance Tommy’s Oscar could only manage a distant sixth in the 3.15 at Kelso.
But that disappointment did not last too long as Small Present ran out a 10-3 winner in the 4.05 at Doncaster.
All in all, the punter pocketed a whopping £205,194.92.
Getaway Trump, right, was a nice winner for the punter
But had Tommy’s Oscar won then they would have been celebrating a gargantuan £1,744,194.17 jackpot.
This unnamed punter’s win follows hot on the heels of another in Australia who celebrated a six-figure winner.
The bettor pocketed a cool £140,000 from a £110 bet thanks a record-breaking 300-1 outsider.
These sums pale in significance to the man regarded as the biggest racing punter in the world, though.
Zeljko Ranogajec is known as ‘The Joker’, lives in the world’s most expensive apartment block and is worth £333m.
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