Despite living in Doncaster, Patricia Ryall had been attending the Cheltenham Festival for 18 years, and in all that time, she never had a single winner.
Well she made up for it on Gold Cup day in 2018, when she placed a £3 stake on the Placepot and ended up winning the thing.
The pot had climbed to £900,410, and thanks to a few long odds selections coming in and no favourites winning their races, Patricia shared the pool with just 6 other winners.
There were 28 units left after the final race was run, splitting the £9ook into dividends of £32,088.70, and since she had 3 of those units, Patricia took home a grand total of £96,266.10.
Her horses were:
- Mr Adjudicator – 8/1
- Chesterfield – 16/1
- Santini – 11/4F
- Native River – 5/1
- Pacha Du Polder – 25/1
- Blow By Blow – 11/1
When asked about her win, Patricia said:
“We usually come down Wednesday to Saturday, but decided to just come down for the one day this year.”
“I picked the horses myself and can’t believe it, I feel sick. I’m going to let it sink in and enjoy it.”
A small syndicate of 5 from Sutton Coldfield was amongst the other winners, sharing £64,177.40 between them.
How the Bet Was Won
Credit: Carine06 Flickr
Mr Adjudicator never looked like winning his race, but he came in 2nd after a run that was confident and never in danger of sending Patricia’s bet crashing out early.
Chesterfield had a much more dramatic race, starting at the rear then fighting for first, before being pushed back to 4th place and just keeping the bet alive.
Santini was the only horse in the bet that was a favourite, and looked like he might make a break for it from 2 out, but was ultimately held at 3rd place, but placed nevertheless.
Next up was the Gold Cup itself, with Might Bite the heavily backed favourite. The bookies were relieved when it didn’t win, and the horse that did was Patricia’s pick, Native River.
Her last two selections, Pacha Du Polder and Blow By Blow also finished in first place, neither ever looking like finishing outside of the places, and completing a fantastic afternoon for Patricia.
The bookies didn’t do so well on this day, with a Ladbrokes spokesperson saying they only just edged in front of the punters, but for Patricia Ryall it was undoubtedly her best day at the races.