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Subscribe to RSSLONDON - A stable lad who works for a leading race horse trainer won $1.5 million on an accumulator bet of just $79 according to news reports on Friday.
Irishman Conor Murphy, 31, placed a bet on five winning horses - all trained by his employer, Nicky Henderson. The gamble was made at Britain's Cheltenham Festival of racing.
“I still cannot believe it, even this morning it is still sinking in," he told Newbury Today reporter Mark Taylor, who broke the story. "I haven’t even thought about the money yet. It was just pure luck."
“I put the bet on just before Christmas in December, I just picked the five best horses and hoped for a lot of luck, I didn’t think much about it."
He reported to work as normal on Friday morning despite his extraordinary win.
"Conor was in the yard this morning at 5:30 a.m. as usual, feeding, feeling legs and doing all the other important jobs as deputy head lad," Henderson told Eurosport.com.
"Everybody here is absolutely thrilled for him. It was just an amazing piece of foresight. Just the chances of all of five getting to Cheltenham and all of them running in the right races, that would be long odds."
Sports newspaper The Racing Post said Internet bookmaker Bet365 was unwilling to discuss the details of Thursday's win.
Spokesman Pat Cooney told the newspaper: "It was a horrible day for us as bookmakers, we lost on every single race, and while we are pleased for customers who had a good day, it is company policy not to discuss individual accounts."
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That's an Irish lad who is going to be having one happy St Pat's.
Good for you laddie. You know your horses. Maybe there was some luck but, skill too.
Happy St Patricks Day.
Good for him. Unfortunately I know too many people that bet the ponies and I'm sure he'll give a large portion if not all of it back over the next year or two.
Stable lad becomes financially stable ....
Nice ....
Must have horse shoe up his butt.
Tis by far the Luck of the Irish. What agood day to you Lad.
Very lucky guy or very smart. Good for him, I hope he has a long life and one he can enjoy the comforts of.
I truly hope he never bets another horse, or buys a lottery ticket ... that way he'll get to keep his prize and enjoy it throughout his life. If he starts betting it on anything, he'll be giving it right back pretty quickly I'm afraid. Good on ya' lad! Blessings and Happy St. Patty's Day.