Sue Adair / Aintree Racecourse Entrance
It was all about a man called Paul Wrathall on Ladies Day at Aintree in 2016, as the shipyard worker won a small fortune after placing a £5.00 bet on the Placepot.
The 29 year old football enthusiast had made several single bets as well as his placepot, and was apparently paying more attention to them so didn’t realise how well his bet was doing.
It was only as the 5th race began that he realised his bet was still going, and after his horse came second his friend ran off to find out how much he stood to win if his final selection came in.
He came back and said:
“If I’ve got this right you stand to win a lot of money, Sharky.” – which we presume is Paul’s nickname.
And come in it did, leaving just 105 units to split the pot, with Mr. Wrathall getting a very large share of it thanks to the size of his bet.
Coach Trip
Paul was a semi-regular attendee at his local race course near his home in Barrow, Lancashire, he even got married there in 2012, but he had attended the Grand National Festival as a bit of a treat with his wife and friends. They booked onto a coach trip together, more than 30 strong, so it was already going to be a busy day out.
Although he was a seasoned racegoer, it would probably be stretching it to call Paul a sophisticated bettor, given that one of his winning selections, Fairy Rath, was chosen simply because the word ‘rath’ makes up part of his surname.
“I was just gobsmacked, you don’t expect to win that. I would have been happy with a couple of hundred. No-one could believe it, it just doesn’t happen to people like us.”
To make the day even better, Paul’s better half also won herself £130 during the course of the day, leaving them around £100 short of a £50k win all together.
To celebrate, they bought everyone in their party champagne – bet the coach trip back to Barrow was fun!
Remember though Paul, you’re married, so half of what you own belongs to your wife, and the other half… well it’s yours but she gets to tell you how you’re allowed to spend it.