An Irish punter took the bookies to the cleaners at the Cheltenham Festival on Wednesday after a horse he had been backing for the past six months won.
Former jockey Paddy 'Mad' Merrigan backed The Real Whacker from odds of 50/1 all the way down to the 8/1 price he returned at in the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase.
Merrigan, who previously opened up on his battle with alcohol and drug addiction, including one binge which saw him 'take cocaine every day for six months', said he "murdered" the bookies at Prestbury Park.
The Athlone native, who tipped the horse at numerous Cheltenham preview nights in recent weeks, said he won more than £50,000 with one betting firm alone.
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Merrigan, who used to work with the horse's trainer Patrick Neville and now runs a tipping service, said: "The whole of Ireland has backed this horse for six months.
"We have cleaned the bookies, it’s over. 50-1 is the first bet I had, don’t worry about I much I win. I can assure you it was the biggest bet of my life."
He added: "The bookies got educated today. This is a serious issue, I want to use this moment now.
"I went into this business when I left Paddy a few years ago, he came to England, and now I have a tipping service, Cold Bear Sports. We crushed the bookies. I backed this horse for six months, I told thousands of other people to back him, they all did.
"No one believed in this horse. Paddy and myself, I used to work with him years ago in Ireland, I was assistant trainer with him and through finances and business and Covid, we couldn’t stay together.
"Paddy went to England and I set up a couple of businesses and now the two of us are flying. I used to be a jockey, I rode when I was a kid. I came to England when I was 16, I rode winners for Paul Nicholls, Peter Bowen, all the best of them. I retired at 20 and I was 10 winners clear of being champion conditional. I was one of the best conditionals to ride in this country.
Merrigan concluded: "I’m mentally addicted to this game since I was a kid. The truth be told, I’m the biggest waste of talent that ever stood at Cheltenham. If I took to the horse racing I would have had a good career but it doesn’t matter."
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