Weddings are expensive. Deposits are non-refundable. And Dave — groom, apprentice electrician, occasional punter — was, six months out from the big day, exactly $8,400 short.
What follows is a story his wife tells better than he does, which is itself the mark of a truly great punting story: when the person with every right to be furious is the one who dines out on it.
The four legs
Leg one: an odds-on favourite that won like an odds-on favourite. Leg two: a $6 chance ridden, in Dave's words, 'like the jockey owed me money'. Leg three was the sweat — a photo finish that took long enough for Dave to compose two separate apology speeches to his fiancée.
Leg four was a mare named — and he maintains this decided the bet — after his fiancée's grandmother. It led all the way.
