Monster payout on Punchestown bet

It seems not only football backers from Leicester can win a fortune on a long shot after it was revealed a punter from the city woke up £823,000 richer on Saturday morning – for a £19 stake.

The pay-out from Coral to the online punter, who wishes to remain anonymous, is the biggest for racing in the firm’s history.

The man described the accumulator bet on five horses at Punchestown on Friday as the “realisation of a lifetime dream” and said he may never bet again.

He did not know he had landed his life-changing win until he came in from a night out in the early hours and checked the racing results, which revealed Das Mooser (10-1), Woodland Opera (9-2), Definite Ruby (7-1), Bacardys (10-1) and Canardier (33-1) all won. They were in five £3 fourfolds and a £4 fivefold accumulator.

He said: “I put a lot of effort into picking my horses. I like to follow stables in form, I’ll study the breeding of the horses, and look at their recent performances.”

Coral PR director Simon Clare said: “Canardier, the horse that completed his incredible big win, was a 33-1 outsider when he backed it, though it returned 8-1, and the customer told me that he didn’t think the form of the other horses in the race was that good, and that as Canardier was well-bred and with a good trainer it was worth a punt.”