THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
January 12, 2021 at 16:00 JST
A lucky better took home a record 481 million yen payout on a Win 5 ticket in Japanese horse racing on Jan. 11. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
A lucky gambler beat the longest of odds with a winning 100-yen Win 5 ticket in Japanese horse racing on Jan. 11 to ride off with a record payout of 481.7 million yen ($4.6 million).
The near-impossible feat of successfully picking five winners in five races was made the more difficult in that none of the five favorites won their respective races.
In the third race, the winner went off as a longshot 14th in the 16-horse field at odds of 114.8 to 1.
The Win 5 tickets for the five races, designated by the Japan Racing Association (JRA), are only sold online.
The previous record payout was 471.8 million yen on Feb. 24, 2019.
On Jan. 11, refunds due to horses being scratched from races were deducted from the sales, which dropped to 688.2 million yen.
The unnamed winner can cash out 70 percent of those proceeds, according to the rules.
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