Horse Racing: Punter hits £1.5m jackpot for £2 stake

AN ON-COURSE racing punter won almost £1.5 million for a £2 stake yesterday when he picked all six winners at Exeter to land the biggest Tote Jackpot pay-out in history.

Steve Whiteley, 61, a heating engineer from North Tawton in Devon, watched in disbelief as Lupita won the final race to make his ticket - the last bet standing in Britain after a succession of outsiders had won - a winner. His dividend paid a whopping 1,445,671.25, while the accumulated odds of his six winners stood at 879,137-1.

Over 2 million was in the pool, but Black Phantom (12-1), Ammunition (16-1) and Mr Bennett (16-1) had seen off the vast majority of the tickets after the first four races. When Lundy Sky (5-1) got the better of odds-on favourite Glitzy D'Ocala in the penultimate race the whole bet was down to just 1. Lupita, trained by Derrick Scott and ridden by Jessica Lodge, who had only ever had one point-to-point winner previously, took up the running after the last flight in the Upton lakes And Lodges Amateur Riders' Handicap Hurdle to change winning punter Whiteley's life forever. Lodge said: "It's brilliant news. It's my first winner under Rules so it's a nice story all round."

The Tote Jackpot had not been won since 27 February at Fontwell, and was a rollover. Whitely had placed just 2 on the bet and only goes racing once or twice a year - he even got into the track for free. "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," said Whiteley. "Why did I pick the last one? Lodge 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. I'm a heating engineer - well I was! I've actually won about 300 betting today as well. 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."

Jayne Amor, racing manager from the Tote, said: "The excitement at the racecourse was unbelievable. He came to us after four races to check if he had been reading his ticket correctly!"