More power to the punter with Annie's Cheltenham victory

Annie Power
Champion Hurdle, Cheltenham, March 15
Unsurprisingly the majority of big losers for bookmakers came during the Cheltenham Festival and Annie Power was the worst result of the year for William Hill, costing us £1 million on the day alone. When you factor in thousands of ante-post tickets on her, it was even worse. Bookmakers are sometimes criticised for shortening up a horse to reduce their liabilities, but she opened at 5-2 in the morning and she started at those odds, so we stuck our necks out this time.

Thistlecrack
World Hurdle, Cheltenham, March 17
He won at evens, just a touch under the 5-4 available first thing. But we got overly brave and pushed him out to as big as 13-8 at one point; that was quickly snaffled and it rubbed the egg well and truly in our faces. If you included the ante-post bets, Thistlecrack was a bad seven-figure loser for us.

Franklin D
Betfred Mile, Goodwood,July 29
The worst result of the year for us away from the festival. We actually tried to duck him on the day, going just 3-1 for what is traditionally a very competitive race but it was one-way traffic in the offices all the way down to 7-4 at the off. It was 8-1 bar and every bookmaker was watching the race with their hearts in their mouths. I remember shouting “box him in!” to Paul Hanagan and James Doyle who could have blocked Ryan Moore’s passage through. Moore threaded the eye of a needle and found his way through for the worst Flat result of the season.