One punter saw their hopes of scooping £1million from a £5 bet fall at the penultimate hurdle on Thursday. The horse racing enthusiast had bet on seven horses to win their respective races over the course of this week's Cheltenham Festival.
The £5 accumulator needed all seven selections to win in order to land a whopping £1,151,851.74 return. Things were looking promising when Honeysuckle romped home in the first race of the week, the Mares' Hurdle.
And the punter certainly must have thought luck was on their side later on Tuesday when Mahler Mission fell at the last in the National Hunt Chase to allow Gaillard Du Mesnil to claim victory. On Wednesday Langer Dan obliged in the Coral Cup before Energumene took the Champion Chase and Delta Work won the Cross Country.
That left them needing evens favourite Shishkin to win Thursday's Ryanair Chase and Galopin Des Champs to claim the Gold Cup on Friday. However, despite being heavily backed, Shishkin was seen off by 13/2 chance Envoi Allen.
The Daily Star reports that the audacious seven-fold accumulator had been laid in the weeks leading up to the Festival. Shishkin's defeat will have hurt the pockets of many, including one who placed a £10,000 bet on him to win live on ITV.
Explaining the lacklustre performance, jockey Nico de Boinville told Racing TV: "It never really went right from when the tapes went up. He was even sitting back on his haunches at the start.
"Over the first two, he wasn't taking me anywhere. I could dictate where I wanted to be at Ascot but I was pushed everywhere here. He was hanging a bit left."
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