Agnes Haddock Wins £410,332 Scoop6 + £278,288 Bonus Fund – 27th January 2007

Agnes Haddock Wins Scoop6 in 2007

Back in 2007, a woman with the wonderful name of Agnes Haddock beat the Scoop6 to take £410,332, then went and won the bonus fund a week later for an additional £278,288.

In doing so, she also set a record for the largest betting shop payout ever to a female customer – a total win of £688,620 – and what’s even more crazy, is that she placed the bet at the exact same Betfred shop that Stuart Bolland used 3 years earlier for his big win.

Agnes was a 50 year old business owner who ran an ironing and laundry shop at the time, but she was also an avid fan of horse racing having learned about the sport from her father, Angus, and bet on the geegees regularly.

She clearly had a talent for it too, having picked the winner of the Grand National in 1968 – her first ever bet.

She told the press:

“I only ever have a bet at the weekend and I’ve only been doing the Scoop6 for 10 weeks – the first time I did it I got four winners.”

That said, there was a little bit of luck in there as well.

The horses she bet on were:

  •  Simon – 7-1
  • Exotic Dancer – 6-1
  • Clouding Over – 6-1
  • Haggle Twins – 8-1
  • Mountain – Non-runner
  • Whispered Secret – 25/1

Notice that non-runner in race five? That’s the little bit of luck, because Scoop6 rules dictate that if one of your selections is a non-runner, it will be automatically replaced with the favourite, which is what happened to Agnes’ bet.

So Mountain was swapped out for the favourite, Katchit, who won the race at 2/1, and secured the £410,332 payday for Agnes.

Agnes Wins the Bonus Fund

Scoop6 Bonus FundA week after her big win, Agnes also correctly selected the winner of the 3:15 at Sandown Park.

This time it was for the bonus fund, which was worth another £278,288, and despite all of her experience betting on the horses, Agnes said that she only picked the horse because it was number 13, and Agnes was born on the 13th.

That horse was Taranos, who also happened to be the 9/4 favourite, so in truth, there may have been more to it than a lucky number, but whatever the reason, the horse won, and so did Agnes.

She said she would continue to run her business as normal, although in actual fact she ended up selling it eventually, and bought a large house in the country.

The huge wins brought Agnes Haddock a lot of attention from the media, including an appearance on morning TV with Eamon Holmes as well as spreads in all the daily newspapers.

Later, she became a tipster of sorts, working alongside a well known betting syndicate leader called Richard Brocklebank, otherwise known as The Squirrel, and even had a column in The Sun for a while.

She carried on betting too, winning another £204 the next weekend, and got five winners in the Scoop6 about a month later. She was denied a second win when her selection in race six came in 2nd.

What a story that would have been.