An Irish punter has scooped nearly €700,000 after he successfully tipped the top 10 national hunt horses for the season.
Brian Munnelly, a meteorologist at Shannon Airport, placed a £10 bet in the UK 'totetentofollow competition' winning £480,000 (€689,000 euro) after the Grand National on Saturday.
The 60-year-old, who swapped forecasting the weather for predicting winners, plans to buy a house in Dublin with the money. "I'm thinking of property, and you know the price of property in Ireland, so that will take care of most of it," he said.
Mr Munnelly, who did not have a runner in the Grand National, won the competition by one point. "I found out about 20 minutes after the race, I did not have a horse in the National so I was sweating," he said.
But the champion tipster, who is originally from Dublin, put his success down to luck and a lifetime of watching horse racing.
"I have been going to Cheltenham for the last 35 years and I watch a lot of racing and I've got a lot of knowledge from it, so it's time it paid off," he said.
"You need a lot of luck, the weather comes into play and I suppose it's handy being able to judge what way the going is going to be."
And for any punters looking to follow Mr Munnelly's successful path in next year's season, he had this advice: "Prepare the list now, while it's still fresh in the mind. My memory now at this stage is really going so prepare it all now while you can still remember."
The 'totetentofollow' works in a similar way to fantasy football with contestants picking 10 horses to follow throughout the season.
Each horse picks up points for winning races with bonus points available for winning prestigious races such as the Cheltenham Gold Cup or the Grand National.
Among Mr Munnelly's successful tips were Irish pair War of Attrition and Brave Inca, winners of the Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival last Month.