'I couldn't let him run loose at 6-1!' - JP McManus makes a fortune at Cheltenham

From 10 to 1, our countdown of the greatest gambles of all time. A new instalment will be published every weekday for the next fortnight. Today – No.9: Reveillez and the 2006 Jewson Novices' Handicap Chase

The background

JP McManus and great gambles at the Cheltenham Festival have long gone hand in hand.

Perhaps the most significant came all the way back in 1982. Had Mister Donovan not won what is now the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, McManus has said that everything that followed – a financial investment in jump racing of unprecedented proportions – might never have happened.

By the time 2006 came around, the McManus operation had moved up several notches. He had retained the services of the most prolific jockey of this or any age, AP McCoy, although partway through the pair's second festival together they hadn't yet enjoyed victory together.

All that was about to change.

The build-up

James Fanshawe brought Reveillez to the 2006 Cheltenham Festival in fine form. Sixth in the previous season's Royal & SunAlliance Hurdle, his chase career began in January with seconds at Exeter and Leicester followed by a two-length win at Fontwell to earn a mark of 133, some 10lb lower than his hurdles rating. He was well fancied by plenty of judges.

As for McManus, he arrived at the track with more doubts than he had woken up with after reading the thoughts of none other than his retained rider.

"I got a little bit nervous when Tony, writing in the Telegraph, said he was worried about his jumping," McManus said at the time. "But I couldn't let him run loose at 6-1!"

And so McManus made his way to Freddie Williams' pitch. The pair had enjoyed some legendary tussles down the years, and Williams once said: "I have a feeling John wants to be the first punter ever to have a million pounds on a horse at the festival. I love the guy to bits, don't get me wrong, but he's given me a lot of sore heads."

Here, the bookmaker was more than happy to accommodate McManus's £100,000 bet at 6-1.

The race

McManus would always have been happier than Williams during the race, such was the ease with which McCoy guided the seven-year-old grey through it.

The pair were never worse than fourth and everything seemed to be going swimmingly as they moved on to the heels of the leaders and were still cruising going down the hill. If Williams was given a moment of hope it was at the third-last, when that suspect jumping McCoy mentioned struck and the pair hit one – but it barely halted their progress.

They soon led and, once in front, never looked like being passed, holding off the challenge of Nicky Henderson's Copsale Lad by a length and a quarter, with Tumbling Dice another nine lengths back in third as the crowd roared him home.

JP McManus: "My most important winner at Cheltenham must have been the first one"

JP McManus: made £1 million on the dayCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

The aftermath

Loudest among that crowd may have been McManus, who collected £600,000 in profit from Williams and reinvested £10,000 of it in a £5,000 each-way bet on his 50-1 shot in the last, Kadoun, who also won. It meant another £325,000 for McManus with the prize-money for the two wins taking him past £1 million on the day.

For Williams things only went from bad to worse as, upon leaving the course, his Jaguar was run off the road by an armed gang in a grey Vauxhall Astra and Land Rover. The balaclava-wearing trio smashed the windows and stole a further £70,000, with the burned-out remains of the heist vehicles found dumped at the roadside. But for McManus they would have got away with a lot more.

McManus remains a man to be feared in the betting ring, but sadly his old sparring partner is no longer with us. Williams launched himself back into the fray but died two years later of a heart attack.

"After the carjacking, at first he was so upset and disgusted with what had happened," said his daughter Julie, "but you just have to brush yourself down and get on with things – that was his view, it was all character-building stuff."

As for Reveillez, he won another big handicap at the following year's Aintree meeting and followed that up with a second in Sandown's Betfred Gold Cup before switching to Jonjo O'Neill, for whom he raced three times before retiring.