Cheltenham Festival bet appears to show punter standing to win over £5,000 without horses even running

A SHREWD Cheltenham Festival punter apparently stands to win more than £5,000 – without their horses even running.

A betslip appearing to show two bets with potential pay outs of a combined £130,000 was posted to a Facebook group.

The unnamed punter looked to have staked £25 on one bet and £15 on another.

Although unclear when the bets were actually placed, the timing appears to have been perfect given how much shorter the odds of all the horses picked are now.

As such, the apparent cash out offer for both bets totalled more than £5,000.

And that is only likely to have got bigger after Shishkin’s big rival Energumene was ruled out of one race.

The first bet comprised a treble of Champion Bumper hopeful Sir Gerhard, RSA Chase favourite Monkfish and Gold Cup runner Champ.

The second bet included Sir Gerhard and Monkfish again but swapped Champ for Arkle chase favourite Shishkin.

It appears the Willie Mullins-trained Sir Gerhard was backed at 33-1 in both slips.

The person who posted the photo – who claimed it was their friend’s slip – said Sir Gerhard could not be seen in the image, but that the selection was there.

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Sir Gerhard – unbeaten in three races – is now just 15-8 to win the bumper on Wednesday, ahead of 2-1 second favourite Kilcruit.

Monkfish was backed at 10-1 but is now a near-certainty to win the Novices’ Chase, also on Wednesday, at 4-7.

The top slip also appeared to show Champ – who won last year’s RSA – being backed at 10-1 for the Gold Cup.

The JP McManus-owned horse, named after AP McCoy, is now just 9-2 to take home the top prize on Friday.

A £25 stake on the treble returned £102,850 – but could be cashed out when the screenshot was taken for £2,728.52.

The second slip showed Sir Gerhard and Monkfish at the same odds, but with Shishkin backed at 4-1.

Nicky Henderson’s supreme chaser is now as short as 1-2 to win the Arkle after Energumene pulled out.

A £15 stake on that treble returned £28,050. But the cash out offer was already £2,660.87.

All odds were correct at the time of writing and subject to change.

The big question was whether to cash out the seemingly genuine bets – some Facebook users did question the authenticity of the slip – or let them run.

One said: “Let them run. Best chance you’ll get at grabbing life-changing money.”

While another posted: “Just over £5,000 for £40 bet. Cash it out.”

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