Homeless man turns $5 into $106K with Melbourne Cup bet

By Rachel Maher

A homeless man from Petone has turned a $5 bet he placed on the Melbourne Cup into a life-changing $106,000.

Robert, who only wanted his first name used, said he went to the Petone Working Men’s Club to join a group watching the race after placing his $5 bet the day prior.

He said he’s not new to betting and has been using his TAB account since he was 19 years old.

After the race at 5pm, Robert said he went to the club’s garden bar for a cigarette to check the results and found his TAB account had five extra zeros.

Robert said he had to refresh his TAB account three times to believe the extraordinary result.

“It was quite, quite an emotional process, mate,” said Robert, who had enjoyed a few beverages to celebrate.

“I couldn’t believe it, and I thought to myself, ‘there must be something wrong here’.

“So, I went into my easybets and realised that there was a green tick next to my $5 first four easybets with $106,000.″

The punters at the working men’s club were also ecstatic, Robert said, and he received a cup with some flowers in it from the club.

When asked how he planned to spend the money, he said he had spent the past nine months living in a garage and would use his winnings to change his life around.

“I’ve gone from being homeless, sitting in a garage to finally being able to afford a deposit on a house now,” Robert said.

TAB could not go into further details about the bet due to privacy reasons but confirmed the $5 bet had resulted in a $106,000 prize.

Without A Fight took out this year’s Melbourne Cup, followed by Soulcombe and Sheraz.

Jockey Mark Zahra had the choice between riding Without A Fight or Gold Trip in the race.

He opted for Without A Fight, this year’s Caulfield Cup winner, and with 200m left down the home straight, there was only one horse who looked like winning. A well-timed run saw him get out from behind the leaders and into space in the middle of the track before pulling away, going on to win by a couple of lengths.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission