(Courtesy: Racing Post)

A York racegoer was celebrating at the track on Saturday after an astonishing punting Friday ended with him winning in the region of £45,000 (Rs 58.5 Lakhs) – and his haul included a £20,315 payout from a Tote Placepot bet he had forgotten he had placed.

Robert Henderson has been coming to the Ebor festival for 28 years but had never enjoyed anything like the success he experienced as a result of Benjamin Hornigold winning the Convivial Maiden Stakes.

The Newcastle-based 71-year-old had never previously won more than £1,500 but after getting through the first five legs of the Placepot, his £4 ticket was still alive when his 16-1 pick contested the final leg.

"I only picked Benjamin Hornigold because of his name," said Henderson. "I watched the race with one of my three friends here, Kevin Gatens, but I couldn't translate the colours in the racecard to the screen. I asked Kevin, 'Where's mine?' He said to me, 'That's yours in front and he's miles ahead!'

"After the horse won I was a bit shocked, to be honest. One of the lads asked me how much was I expecting the payout to be. I told him £800 but I had a look on my phone to see how much I'd won and the zig-zag line kept going up. I said, 'It's £20,000!' 

"After that, though, as I was talking to the girl in the Tote booth, my phone pinged. I got it out and saw it was a message from the Tote congratulating me. What I'd forgotten is I'd placed the same Placepot bet on my phone in the morning. When I saw that, I said to Kevin, 'Christ, I've won £20,000 twice!'"

Henderson had done even better than that, with a successful Quadpot, double, trixie and lucky 15 taking his overall winnings to roughly £45,000. Having agreed to share some of the profits if one of the quartet had a Placepot win, Gatens and Henderson's two other racing friends will each pocket just over £2,500.

Henderson added: "I'm a sensible punter. I only normally have 50 pence lucky 15s at the weekend but I save up all year to come to this meeting and the Cheltenham Festival. When I'm on the racecourse I only really bet in fivers and tenners. I like to watch a race and know that if the horse loses, I'll be able to shrug my shoulders. I wouldn't want to ever be biting my nails over a bet. It's all fun and then, if you win, it's happy days.

"This won't change a thing for me. I'm already happily retired. Me and my wife Jacqui have been talking about having a river cruise up the Danube, so I think we'll definitely be doing that now."

Friday proved to be a big day for another Tote customer, York accountant Tayque Holmes, who on his first ever day at the races purchased a £50 Lucky Pick wallet that returned £30,473.