£5,000 from £6 stake in just half an hour

Carer Cherry Evans is toasting the sweet smell of success – after all five of her horses romped home within the space of half an hour to net her a near-£5,000 win.

The 51-year-old, who works for Shropshire Council, put down just £6.20 on a Lucky 31 spread bet and picked five horses before leaving for a long shift.

Cherry returned to her Shrewsbury home at about 10pm on Wednesday and admitted her 'eyes nearly dropped out' when she switched on her laptop to discover they had all come first.

She had beaten combined odds of 16447/1 to win £4,869 – nearly 800 times her original stake.

Backfromthecongo was first past the winning post in the 4pm at Hereford at odds of 9/2, closely followed by Scrapper Jack (4/1) at the 4.05pm at Limerick and her big winner, Ifyousayso, which romped home as a 28/1 outsider in the 4.10pm at Musselburgh.

Crocodile Bay, as a 9/2 winner in the 4.20pm at Lingfield, and My Miss Lucy, 11/4 joint favourite in the 4.30pm at Hereford also won to leave her in disbelief – and significantly richer.

She said: "I have a nephew called Jack and a niece called Lucy so I picked two of the horses because they shared their names. I picked Crocodile Bay because it was ridden by jockey Nora Looby who I follow.

"I chose Ifyousayso and Backfromthecongo because I had seen reasonable write-ups about them. I do study the form, but it's very rare to have five winners like that together. It was the 28/1 winner that really bumped the money up.

"My dad Roy got me into horseracing and he fancies himself as a bit of a tipster – but he never wins."

Cherry said she may treat herself to a new car.