For the past four years, one of my mates has bet $50 on a horse to win and has won that bet three times in a row. Therefore it seemed like only common sense to go to him for a tip of who I should bet my money on to get a bit of quick cash before my travels at the end of the year. After telling me he was out of the gambling game and retired as he was on top, I convinced him using the few words – imagine if you won though. And with that he gave me my tip, a tip that would change my life forever.

Okay, perhaps that was a little bit drastic, but I just wanted you to keep reading because the story of somebody I know who won big is one definitely worth reading.

The tip I got was 50 bucks on number 23, Tres Blue, paying $26 dollars for the win. The whole race, my horse was coming second until the last leg of which it dropped off the charts completely. I don’t even know what it came because it didn’t matter, I didn’t win any money. The questionable advice from Reese Bobby to his son Ricky Bobby, if you ain’t first, you’re last, couldn’t be anymore appropriate for my horse racing betting history. This advice however is not relevant to everyone as you’re about to discover in a fairytale of sorts from my boss at the Yacht Club.

Working on the TAB at the Club paying dividends out to those who were lucky enough to win, my boss at work put through his $5 mystery boxed first four. He looks around the room with his arms in the air and shouts OH MY GOD, I JUST WON TWENTY TWO GRAND ! With hands shaking, he rings up his missus and tells her the news that he had just won $22 331.40. The part that makes this story comparable to a fairytale is that his missus got cancer this year and so they have both had a really tough year to say the least. The money that he won on the Melbourne Cup covers all if not a massive chunk of their medical bills for the past year. There could not have been a better suitor of that luck at that particular time.

Although I still lost all my money, knowing that somebody won big and was able to help a situation they had not anticipated certainly makes everyone feel like a winner.