On the Nose: Punter Lands £4,878 Treble with All Selections Winning By a Head or Closer

Heads of Three Horses Racing in a Line

Cheering home a horse you’ve wagered on in the final few furlongs manifests itself in all manner of emotions.

So put yourself in the shoes of one customer this week whose treble landed… but with all three of their selections winning by a head or less.

And this wasn’t any old treble, by the way: winning selections of 5/2, 16/1 and 40/1 helped them to turn a £3 jolly into a payout of £4,878!

Monks Mead By a Nose

In theory, or by the odds at least, Monks Mead was the most likely winner on the coupon, with the punter taking 5/2 – with best odds guaranteed in play, they would have got 100/30.

But races aren’t run on paper, and in reality Monks Mead is a 31-race veteran at the age of just five that hasn’t won since November 2023.

His return earlier in January was hardly auspicious either, having finished fifth in a Class 6 renewal on the all-weather at Lingfield – although that form was somewhat franked yesterday when Royal Jet, who finished nearly two lengths clear of Monks Mead earlier this month, won at Southwell.

Incidentally, that saw trainer Tony Carroll pass the £1 million prize money mark, having also saddled his 1,000th winner last year.

Monks Mead’s trainer, Mark Usher, has also been in reasonable form in 2026 so far, and his regular jockey George Bass set about guiding his horse through the nine-runner field.

The pair were well placed throughout, with Bass sitting on the tails of the leaders in the early going, before headway was made two furlongs from home.

Wrist Art, the 7/4 favourite, had come out of the traps strongly under George Wood, but he began to fade under the pressure of the challenging pack.

Monks Mead was ridden along with a furlong to go and looked to be getting stronger as he took the lead with around 100 yards left to run.

Iftikhaar, an 18/1 outsider, responded strongly to being shaken up and looked set to claim an unlikely victory, but Monks Mead – but hook or by crook – had just enough to cling on to win by a nose.

Myna Threat

The perils of not betting with a bookmaker offering Best Odds Guaranteed was confirmed by our punter’s second winner of the card at Lingfield on Wednesday.

Had they used BOG, they’d have received 25/1 – not the 16/1 taken – when the underdog Myna prevailed in the Class 6 flat race.

And so they missed out on an even greater payout… unlike one William Hill customer, whose £40 acca landed earlier this month to win £30,000 – more than £13,000 higher than if they’d used a non-BOG bookie for the same selections.

Remember that man Carroll? He is the trainer of Myna, a five-year-old who – prior to Monday at least – hadn’t won in 16 prior starts.

But Carroll has a happy knack for producing winners on the all-weather, and with the prolific Jason Watson in the saddle, Myna had a chance to upset the odds.

The five-year-old tracked the leaders from the outset of the 1m 2f trip, with Watson giving a shake of the reins two furlongs from home.

With the 5/2 favourite Thundering Breeze more like a warm breath on a cold morning, the scene was set for Myna to battle with HaveaGoBeau on the homeward stretch.

The seven-year-old found an extra gear to take the lead in the run-in, but Myna – defying the formbook – responded when asked for more by Watson and just about got home in first place by a neck.

Make Mine a Manhattan

A staggering underdog performance saw Manhattan Chute, a 50/1 SP no-hoper with the bookies, complete the hat-trick for our Betfair punter.

He hadn’t won in 14 attempts on the flat and all-weather, finishing dead last in two of his three prior starts.

But the four-year-old produced a career best since switching to the Jim and Suzi Best yard in the summer to land a maiden win.

Jockey Sean Levey told Sky Sports Racing afterwards:

“I didn’t think five furlongs was his trip but they went so quick, they fell back in his lap.

“I rode him over five last time and he had headgear on and I couldn’t lay up. We took the headgear off and he’s dealt with lesser horses this time around.”

Despite not getting the best prices available, our Betfair punter was still able to command a return of 2,439/1 on their three selections – turning £2 into £4,878!