Donegal fisherman reels in €144,444 from €15 bet with Boylesports

The luck of the Irish, eh! A County Donegal fisherman reeled in a monster after a tremendous bet on the horses netted him over €140k in winnings.

John McGilloway hails from the picturesque fishing town of Killybegs, most famous for its Donegal Catch that you see in the Tesco freezers.

He walked into Boylesports during the week and placed a €0.50 each-way Lucky 15 on four big priced horses. John concentrated on four consecutive races in Tuesday’s meeting at Redcar. The total stake of the bet was €15.

How did he pick these out?

Freak Out, selected at 22/1 and Cruyff Turn, also selected at 22/1, both went on to win the 1.45 and 2.20 respectively. He somehow managed to pick out 28/1 winner Artistic Rifles in the 2.50 who went on to win by a flared nostril.

At this point John was surely in need of a pint of Guinness and a box of Xanax to settle the nerves as he waited on 16/1 shot Twist Of Hay. The horse was backed into 11/1 before the off, got to the front and held on to land John’s astounding bet.

In just under two hours, a very normal guy turned €15 into a mind-blowing total of €144,444.25. That’s not a bad days work.

Collecting the winnings

Interviewed when collecting the mammoth windfall from BoyleSports on Thursday, John said: “I must thank all the staff at the BoyleSports shop in Killybegs. I’m over the moon and so glad to be picking up such an amazing amount of money, especially when it only took a modest stake.”

Leon Blanche, Head of Communications for BoyleSports added: “We have to hand it to John for reeling in four big ones in a row and turning his stake into such an eye-catching sum.

“It’s nice to see one of our regular customers rewarded so handsomely and we wish him the best of luck with his total winnings of €144,444.25 from a total stake of €15.”