Back in 2004, Stuart Bolland won the largest recorded betting shop payout in history, after correctly predicting the winning horse in all six races of the Scoop6, making him a millionaire.
He took home £1,132,657, which was also the biggest ever Scoop6 dividend at the time.
There is a sad story behind his win though, concerning an elderly man by the name of Jack Lee.
You see, Mr Lee had actually won the Scoop6 the week before Stuart Bolland, when the win pot stood at a total of £857,714. However, one of his successful selections, Babodana, was subsequently disqualified after initially winning the Ben Marshall Stakes at Newmarket.
The horse, trained by Mark Tompkins, was disqualified by stewards, and despite an appeal, it meant that Mr Lee’s bet was lost.
It was only because of Jack Lee’s bad luck, that the win pot grew to 7 figures before Stuart Bolland’s bet won it, so, as a gesture of good will between punters, Bolland offered to give £15k to Jack.
Fred Done, owner of Betfred where the bet was placed, arranged for a bit of press around the handover, which was due to take place about a month later with both men present, but sadly, before it could happen, Jack Lee passed away.
Jack, from Newcastle, was 75 when died. He was a man who liked to have a small bet every day, and it was a huge shame that he passed before he was able to accept the cheque from Stuart Bolland.
A spokesperson for Betfred said that everyone was naturally feeling very down about it.
How the Bet was Won
On the day of Bolland’s big win, the races were being run at Doncaster and Wincanton.
The first race was a nice easy start, with the favourite coming in at the front of the field of just seven runners, and race number two wasn’t so bad either, since the winner, Quito, was heavily fancied at 7/2.
It was a 12/1 shot called Carte Diamond that won race 3 though, causing problems for many of the remaining tickets, but it was back on track for race four when yet another favourite came in first, a horse named Royal Auclair.
With two races left to go, Stuart Bolland must have been allowing himself to believe it, although he had taken a bit of a risk on Breaking Shadow in race 5, with odds of 16/1.
The horse won though, despite the fact it was up against a field of 21 other runners, and it was onto the sixth and final race.
Perouse was the horse Bolland had backed here, and it couldn’t have done much better for him. Unchallenged from the 5th until the finish, Perouse may have been priced at 11/1 but he raced like a real winner, and made Scoop6 betting history.