A BETTING shop regular has made £1m from a single 50p stake after picking the winners of eight horse races in a row at combined odds of almost 3m to one.

The man was “visibly shaken” and went pale after being told of the bonanza when, ignorant of the win, he asked a cashier to check his slip.

He told staff, “I had better tell the wife” before running from the William Hill shop in Bedale, North Yorkshire.

The gambler flouted the conventions of serious racing pundits by backing horses in the races on Friday whose names sounded lucky, often at long odds of as much as 10-1. His first winner was Isn’t That Lucky, while his final selection, equally suitably, was called A Dream Come True.

“Most punters would not dream of tempting fate with a bet like that,” said a William Hill spokesman.

“He has defied the first convention of betting which is not to back horses with winning names. You could not have made it up. It is a staggering bet.

“He clearly had not the slightest idea what had happened when he walked into the shop on Saturday morning.

“He placed another five 50p bets and then asked the staff member to check his betting slip. She said, ‘Are you joking? Don’t you know you have won £1m?”

Sharpe said the man dashed from the premises so quickly that staff did not have time to offer him the VIP day at Newcastle races that they had laid on for him.

According to William Hill, the winner is a regular in its Thirsk, North Yorkshire, betting shop, where he placed the bet and will have to claim his winnings. He gambles on horses almost daily, but has never come close to winning on a major scale before.

The man placed his 50p stake as an accumulator bet on eight races, meaning that he would get nothing back unless his horses won every one of the races.

His winning streak began when Isn’t it Lucky was first past the post in the 2.55pm race at Sandown, near Esher, Surrey, at odds of 8-1. His luck continued with three races in Dubai.

By the fifth race, when he successfully backed “Ede” at 10-1 in the 4.50pm at Warwick, his stake had grown to £61,534, at odds of more than 100,000 to one.

When A Dream Come True finally galloped to victory at 9.20pm — the third of his winners at Wolverhampton — the gambler was £1m richer, beating odds of 2,799,828 to 1. But for the £1m ceiling, he would have won £1.4m.

“The closest you can compare to this is when Frankie Dettori rode all seven winners at Ascot in 1996,” said William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe.. “The industry underestimated how many fans he had and lost £50m.”

Sharpe said the five bets the man placed before he knew of his win were also accumulators on eight horses.

Last night the punter had still not returned to collect his winnings.

"I'm amazed, its clearly not big winner behaviour" said Sharpe. "Maybe he has got cold feet" he said hopefully. "At least we got the £2.50p he staked today back."

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