A pair of pensioners from the Great Yarmouth area could turn a near £100k bet win, into more than £400k with a winning horse at the Hennessy Gold Cup race at Newbury tomorrow.
Peter Riley, 67, and Richard Delf, 73, turned £24 into £98,132 on the famous totescoop6 bet, which required them to select six winners from meetings at Haydock and Ascot last weekend.
But the bet doesn't end there for the celebrating pair, as today they could land an additional £314,482.
All they need to do is pick a winner from the Hennessy Gold Cup in Newbury, which would take their total winnings to £412,514.
They will be spending the day with their wives at a pre-booked VIP table at Newbury Racecourse, keeping everything crossed that their lucky streak continues.
No matter the result, they will keep their original winnings from last week.
Mr Riley, 67, from Martham said: 'We put £24 on between us and will be splitting the winnings in half. It's the first time we've won and it's a fantastic feeling.
'We have absolutely no idea, either of us, what we are going to do with all that money.
'We had an idea the bonus race would be at Newbury so we booked ourselves a nice table with champagne and all the trimmings. We thought we could celebrate there with the £98k. Who knows? It could be even more but it will be very difficult to get a seventh winner for the bonus.'
The friends met at Burlington Hotel in Great Yarmouth, which Mr Delf's family owns.
They discovered a mutual love for horses and became good pals, attending many horse meetings together, sometimes with their wives as well.
Mr Riley himself has a keen history in horses having part owned 20 that were trained initially by Bill Clay and latterly by John Mackie.
One of his most successful horses was Red Forrest, that won a total of eight races.
He is also currently a part owner of Saint Thomas who is also with Mackie and has 10 wins to his name.
Mr Riley added: 'It's nice to get something back from racing having put so much money into it over the years. I really enjoy the sport as does Richard who has also part owned a few in the past. We met up for lunch to celebrate earlier in the week but hopefully we'll be doing more celebrating at Newbury on Saturday.'
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