London, Mar 9 (ANI): A man in Britain has won 1.5 million pounds from a 2 pound stake at a horse race after he picked six consecutive winning horses.
Steve Whiteley, 60, had arrived at the racecourse at Exeter via a free bus ride, using his bus pass, and he had entered the grounds for free through a promotion.
Whiteley, a heating engineer who only goes to the races twice a year, put his money on the Tote Jackpot, which requires punters to pick every winning horse in six races.
As each race takes place, those who did not pick the winner are eliminated and the field of gamblers rapidly thins. If no one picks all six winners, the winning pot rolls over to the following event.
At the event 363,000 tickets picked the winner in the first leg, but just 9,076 tickets then repeated their success in the second.
In the third race only 571 punters got through, and only seven people picked the fourth winner, and Whitley was the only ticket left for both of the final races.
"The most exciting bit was when my mate said to me after the fourth race that there were only seven people in the whole country left in the jackpot," the Telegraph quoted Whiteley as saying after he won.
"And then at the last he said, 'There is only one left and it's this one'. I couldn't believe it. I didn't look - I am shaking like a leaf.
"I am not a horse racing man. I go out once or twice a year," he said.
In the Tote Jackpot, the total stakes entered are put into a pool, which is shared by the winners, rather than a fixed price being offered and every jackpot winner getting a set amount.
The total pool for the jackpot was just over 2 million pounds, which left Whiteley with 1,425,309 pounds after the Tote's deductions.
The jockey of the final winning horse was Jessica Lodge, who had ridden in 28 races without a victory before the win.
"This is an incredible fairy story - Steve has won a fortune for two quid. It is the type of win that dreams are made of," George Primarolo, of Totesport, which organises the jackpot, added. (ANI)
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