Punter walks away with K45,000

 ONE lucky winner walked away with more than K45,000 in the Melbourne Cup race at Pacific Racing and Sports Betting on Tuesday at Gordon, Port Moresby.

The lucky punter bet K500 Quinella on New Zealand horse Prince of Penzance and Max Dynamite and walked away with K45,530 while  a handful of ohter punters managed to get a return of a few hunred kina on their long shot.

Many were left disappointed going for the favourites in Fame Game, Trip To Paris and Preferment as the races only female jockey Michelle Payne stole the limelight from a field of more illustrious male riders.

On the screens expectant murmurings turned to stunned silence and then wails of discontent as 100-1 outsider Prince of Penzance squeezed through push his way ahead to turn Australian racing on its  head and prove every professional tipster wrong and leave quite a few a little red-faced.

Pacific Racing and Sporting Betting manager Peter McCoy and local partner Joseph Kobol sympathised with the vast masses of bettors who followed the form guide and checked the conditions and told themselves they would be there or there abouts come the end of the three and a half sprint at Flemington’s track which incidentally had a good rating attached for the day of Australia’s biggest race.

But out of every tragedy their is a silver lining somewhere and for one person there were more than 45,000 reasons to celebrate the day at the bookmakers.

“Due to security reasons we can’t reveal the big winner as well as our overall take for the day, that’s all confidential,’ McCoy said.

“No doubt we gained a lot this time and it wasn’t a great day for most punters but that’s how it goes in the betting industry.

“We take bets from as low as K2 and that’s one attractive thing about our set up.”

“We’ve got 46 years experience in the industry and we a variety of products and lines that are affordable and pay great returns.”