Lucky punter who turned $10 into $240k highlights biggest Cup wins

ONE lucky Melbourne Cup punter pulled off the unthinkable today — but another was left spitting chips after Almandin’s win.

ONE lucky Melbourne Cup punter pulled off the unthinkable on Tuesday, correctly guessing the order of the first four finishers to turn a measly $10 bet into $240,000.

Cup winner Almandin and Heartbreak City were neck and neck down the hope straight but to the sportsbet.com.au punter’s delight the Kerrin McEvoy gelding edged home — and Hartnell and Qewy followed in third and fourth.

THE WINNERS

Overall, sportsbet.com.au paid more than $13 million to more than 80,000 punters who backed Almandin, including two who jumped on the horse when it opened at $301. One had $100 for a $30,100 collect, while the other invested $20.

The biggest single wager on the German import was $5465.70 at $11 for a return of $60,122.70 and $5,000 at $11 for a return of $55,000.

“Punters outsmarted us by backing Almandin at the ridiculously big odds of $301 earlier in the piece and even today they kept getting stuck into her. The person who won nearly a quarter of a million dollars on the First Four is an absolute genius,” sportsbet.com.au’s Christian Jantzen said.

A Victorian TAB customer also correctly guessed the first four and turned a single $1 coin into $24,000. There were several TAB punters who tipped Almandin, including one punter who placed $5000 on the Lloyd Williams-owned stayer at $14 on Saturday for a collect of $70,000.

THE LOSER

It was Heartbreak City for one punter after the horse of the same name just failed to win Tuesday’s $6 million Melbourne Cup at Flemington.

The French-bred Heartbreak City ($19) — a last start winner of the Ebor Handicap at York — fought out a stirring two-horse war with the Lloyd Williams-owned Almandin ($11) for much of the Flemington straight but ultimately came up agonisingly short, bested by the German-bred import by just a fifth of a length.

One punter would have taken the result particularly hard though, having stood to win a whopping $114,750 after crafting a brilliant four-leg multi with corporate bookmaker bet365 off just a $37.50 outlay.

Having watched Divine Prophet ($6.50), Jameka ($7.50) and champion mare Winx ($2.00) all salute in the Caulfield Guineas, Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate respectively, the Cup hopeful needed Heartbreak City to win the big one today for the six-figure collect, having locked in $34 fixed odds.

Alas, it was not to be, though we’re reliably informed the punter in question had a fairly large saving bet on Cup-winner Almandin at $19 to thankfully salvage something from the wreckage.

— punters.com.au

THE NERVOUS WAIT

But the nervous wait isn’t over one tipster, who will be sweating on Yankee Rose in the Crown Oaks on Thursday after securing the first two legs — Winx in the Cox Plate and Almandin in the Melbourne Cup — of a three-leg multi that will turn $2000 into $136,800.

But he has reason to hope after Yankee Rose was installed as a $13 favourite for next year’s Melbourne Cup, in an indication of her class.

Originally published as Lucky punter who turned $10 into $240k highlights biggest Cup wins