THE genius punter who won £250,000 off a fiver at Cheltenham Festival has revealed his fancy for the Grand National.
Shrewd Paul Dean also bagged £140,000 in the Gold Cup after scooping quarter of a million – despite the last horse in his five-fold bet falling.
Dean, 40, cashed out with Betfair for the life-changing sum, then breathed a huge sigh of relief as red-hot favourite Envoi Allen ended his unbeaten run at the fourth fence.
Now Dean has turned his eye to the Grand National, being run at Aintree on Saturday, April 10.
And he has revealed he likes the look of a big 66-1 shot who could make his way into the places.
Dean has picked out the Colin Tizzard-trained Mister Malarky, who is also as short at 40-1 with some bookies.
The eight-year-old last won at Ascot in December, before returning from wind surgery last month to finish third in a 3m race at Kempton.
Dean wrote on Twitter: “Don’t normally do many EW [each-way] bets but the 66-1 (50-1 generally) Mister Malarky for the Grand National is very big.
“Flat track, looking like decent ground, loves to be up with the pace, cracking trial last time and crucially has more improvement in him over the trip.”
Dean, from Stockton-on-Tees, wowed punters everywhere with his Cheltenham heroics.
Speaking of his big win, he said: “I’m buzzing, the whole family is.
“I am going to have a few beers and let this sink in. I cannot wait for my local pub to reopen. It is going to be quite some party.”
His fancy in the National will have some way to go to challenge red-hot favourite Cloth Cap, though.
The Jonjo O’Neill-trained horse is already as short as 7-2 to win the world’s most famous race.
If he did triumph at those odds he would become the shortest-priced winner of the Aintree race for more than 100 years.
Get £140 in free bets for the Grand National
SunSport looked into the pros and cons of backing him here.
Punters could get a good look at how the race will pan out when a virtual version of the race is aired again on ITV.
It had to replace the real thing last year when the National was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
A clip will again be played ahead of the contest this year – and has come close to predicting the actual winner the past three times.
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