Gambling history was created at Exeter racecourse yesterday when Steve Whiteley, a heating engineer, won £1,445,671.71 for a stake of £2 on the Tote’s popular jackpot bet.
Mr Whiteley, 61, from North Tawton in Devon, arrived at the track by coach with two friends for a quiet day out but became the talk of the track as word spread of his remarkable success. It was the largest payout in the history of the Tote jackpot.
The bet required punters to name all six winners. Mr Whiteley confessed: “It’s difficult to say how I came up with them. The first few selections I had two in each race and that was going to cost £32 so I scrapped that because I couldn’t afford it.
“Why did I pick the last one? Lodge [the winning lady amateur jockey] is just a name that sticks in my head. I didn’t know anything about her. I’m not a horse-racing man, I only go once or twice a year.”
Jessica Lodge, the jockey concerned, was, in fact, riding her first winner.
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“I’m a heating engineer — well, I was!” Mr Whiteley said. “The most exciting bit was after the fourth race when my mate said only seven people in the whole country were still in it. I couldn’t watch the last race. I’m shaking like a leaf, I can’t believe it.”
His winners were: Semi Colon at 2-1; Black Phantom, 12-1; Ammunition, 16-1; Mr Bennett, 16-1; Lundy Sky, 5-1; and finally Lupita at 12-1 in the last leg.