An Aintree punter with deep pockets is now an awful lot richer after I Am Maximus’s Grand National victory.
Trackside bookmaker Fitzwilliam Sports revealed before Saturday’s big race that they had accepted a £100,000 bet at odds of 8/1 for the JP McManus horse to win the National – who had won the race in 2024 and finished second in 2025.
And jockey Paul Townend rode the horse to victory in a win that emulated racing legend Red Rum – and gave that punter a pay-out worth £900,000.
Johnny Dineen, fronting Fitzwilliam’s pitch, said before the race: ‘It’s the biggest bet we’ve ever taken, £100,000 at 8-1.
It’s our biggest bet by a mile and we’ll have to try to trade some of it off in the ring.
‘It goes without saying it would be a bad result for us!’
Dineen had joked in a pre-race interview on ITV that the bookmaker could face ‘liquidation’ with such a big bet going against them.
But he added afterwards: ‘We had a bad race but the money lost is recoverable hopefully’ – having laid off ‘a fair bit’ of the pay-out.
More to follow.
