STEVEN MADDOX and three of his workmates were celebrating last night after cleaning up in the Select A Cheltenham Stable competition.
Maddox, 38, a lorry loader from Wimblebury, Staffs, won first prize of £50,000 in the Better bookmaker-sponsored competition, and just for good measure landed the second prize of £10,000 as well, taking his haul to £60,000.
“This is fantastic,” he said, “not just for me but my pals at work who shared the two winning entries with me. There was Robert White, Paul Kirkham and myself in the winning list, and another pal, Chris, and myself in the second list.”
At the start of the final day in the competition, Maddox’s best list was lying in just over 500th place, but he said: “I knew we would have a chance, as we had five horses running for us on the last day. First, Katchit won, then Kauto Star - my second winning baker after Denman - and then Andreas sealed it for us.”
He estimates his share of the winnings will be around £20,000, and he said: “I’m going to pay off a £7,000 loan, then give a nice present to my partner, Deborah Hall, and our four children.”
Maddox describes himself as “just a £5 a week punter”, but says he always goes in for the Select A Stable competitions. “For the cost of a fiver, you get so much fun out of it,” he said.
Raymond Martin, who led the competition going into the final day, weakened into ninth place after managing one second from his three runners.
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