Cheltenham Festival punter wins £83,000 after placing one of the biggest bets EVER on Constitution Hill

ONE Cheltenham Festival punter pocketed £83,000 after placing one of the biggest bets in the event's history.

A horse racing fan stuck an eye-watering £230,000 on Constitution Hill to win the Champions' Hurdle.

The wager was laid by Brighton-based bookie Star Sports.

Constitution Hill duly won by nine lengths, signalling a difficult day for the firm.

The punter placed the bet on 4-11 odds - meaning Star Sports were forced to pay out a cool £83,636.

He said: "At the moment we’re feeling a little bit sorry for ourselves. It wasn’t too bad going into that race.

“It’s been a tough day but we’ve been incredibly busy. From a racing point of view, Constitution Hill was fantastic and it was good for the sport.

"Compared to last year it’s like night and day as we’re so far ahead of last year’s run rate."

Star Sports' Ben Keith last week admitted that he lost a staggering £2.2m during last year's Cheltenham Festival.

But that has not deterred him from laying huge bets once again this year.

On his bold strategy, he told the Mail last week: "Every single punter is different and I do a Shane Warne on them. The moment they are predictable and I can predict them I have beaten them.

"I've won tens of millions of pounds off some punters. But you would love to be as big a mug as them because they've made billions doing something else.

"Because they are used to getting what they want in business they think they can make what they want to happen in gambling.

"They are used to saying to bookmakers I want £50,000 and being told they can have £5,000 on. I go, that's a bet, do you want it again?

"A wealthy man takes longer to beat but when the fruit machine goes, it goes big."