Melbourne Cup 2023: Punter loses $320,000 after going all-in on favourite Vauban

One Melbourne Cup punter will be kicking up dust this afternoon after Cup favourite Vauban flopped at Flemington.

One Melbourne Cup punter will be kicking up dust this afternoon after Cup favourite Vauban flopped at Flemington.

One Melbourne Cup punter will be kicking up dust this afternoon after Cup favourite Vauban flopped at Flemington.

Vauban received substantial bets in the lead-up to the iconic race on Tuesday, including a $320,000 bet split between odds of $5 and $4.80 by professional punter Steve Bradley.

He initially aimed for a $400,000 bet at $5 to win $2 million but had to settle for smaller bets totalling $320,000.

“Steve Bradley just went completely nuts and it just created chaos in the room,” Bookmaker Warren Woodcock said.

“There were a lot of big bets flying around.”

Other bets on Vauban included $230,000 at $4.80 and $200,000 at $5 before the horse placed a disappointing 14th.

Two bets of $20,000 and $22,500 were placed on the eventual winner, Without A Fight, with odds of $7.50, yielding returns of $150,000 and $168,750 respectively.

Several TAB punters also won big after placing bets of $10,000 and $15,500 on Without A Fight at odds of $6, leading to mammoth returns of $60,000 and $93,000.

A Ladbrokes customer had a potential million-dollar win riding on a five-leg multi-bet, with the final leg being Vauban to win the Melbourne Cup at odds of $7.

The bet stood to collect $989,120, but Vauban‘s loss left the punter painfully short of the payout.

Jockey Mark Zahra elected to hop off last year’s winner Gold Trip in order to ride Without A Fight and became the first jockey since 1978/79 to win back to back Melbourne Cups on two different horses.

Jockey Mark Zahra elected to hop off last year’s winner Gold Trip in order to ride Without A Fight and became the first jockey since 1978/79 to win back to back Melbourne Cups on two different horses.

The win netted the owners of Without A Fight a cool $4.4 million payday.

Zahra explained to Channel 10 exactly how he pulled off the phenomenal Cup victory.

“In front of him (Without A Fight) was Gold Trip and Vauban. I thought I’d stay here,” Zahra said.

“They all made their moves and it opened up for me. I was on a horse you can sit on.

“He’s got an electric turn of foot and he pulled me all the way to the line.”

The win adds to the vast trophy cabinet for the Freedman family with trainer Sam heaping praising on his famous father, Lee.

“It’s been a great race for the family,” trainer Sam Freedman, son of Anthony, said.

“It’s been a while between drinks but it’s good to get another one. Credit to the old man, he’s been incredible through all of this.

“His wisdom and experience in nursing a horse through like this and went up to Queensland and looked after him up there and got him right into form and he brought it back to Victoria and he’s been brilliant ever since. Credit to him.”