• Winning bet
cashed in more than four decades after it was placed after man discovers slip
in late father-in-law’s home
A
winning Grand National bet has been cashed in 43 years late after a man found
the slip while sorting through his late father-in-law’s house.
Bob
Holmes discovered the win-only bet, which backed Red Rum in 1974, while looking
through paperwork in his Scottish home.
It is thought to be the oldest
bet cashed in.
Holmes, 76, contacted the bookmaker William Hill and it
confirmed the slip, placed at odds of 11-1, had not been cashed.
It
agreed to pay out on the bet, adjusted for inflation. Holmes will receive
£130 as well as £130 to place on Saturday’s Grand National
– plus a matching donation to his favourite charity, WaterAid.
Holmes, who lives in Houston, Renfrewshire, said: “My
sister-in-law Rhoda Robertson was moving house and my wife and I were helping
her to see what could be thrown out, so I was looking through a whole pile of
old papers, tax returns, bank statements and so on.
“I came across
a scruffy bit of paper that turned out to be a betting slip that had been
placed but never cashed. When I looked more closely it was for Red Rum in the
1974 Grand National.
“I contacted William Hill who said yes, it is
a bet that has been properly placed and they would not only honour it but would
increase the value to today’s prices.”
The betting slip reads:
1 win. Red Rum. Live 3.15.
Holmes does not know why his father-in-law,
Joe Robertson, who died in 1979, never cashed in the slip. He said: “It is
a mystery. My father-in-law probably lost the betting slip and was not able to
cash it.
“It was very rare for him to bet. He was not a betting
man, maybe a couple of times a year on the National or the Derby.”
Holmes, who worked for the Foreign Office before retiring, sent the
slip to William Hill so it could verify its authenticity. It confirmed the bet
was placed at its Paisley branch, which no longer exists, and had never been
cashed.
He has split the money William Hill gave him to put on this
year’s National three ways with his wife Nancy and sister-in-law. He is
backing Blaklion, while his wife has chosen Definitely Red and her sister
Ucello Conti.
Graham Sharpe, a spokesman for William Hill, said:
“It is certainly a record. I’ve worked at William Hill for 45 years
and the record before was seven years for a lady whose husband had passed away
and she had not felt able to go through his clothes until then, and had found a
betting slip.
“If you have a valid betting slip we will always
honour it because we understand that things like that happen.”
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