A trio of lucky Wellington gamblers who banked on the unlucky No 13 won the 29th Punter of the Year contest on the last day of Hawke's Bay Racing's Bostock New Zealand Spring Racing Carnival in Hastings on Saturday.
But it was the form, not the numbers, that mattered for accountant Aaron Hayne and fellow Arskin Jimmy syndicate mates Jason Gray and Mark Bloomfield whose big sting came just three races into the 10-race card with $40 on a $161.30 quinella of 10th-favourite and No 13 Opera Knight with 9th-favourite El Luchador for a single collect of $6452.
Having not had a single collect in the opening race and just modest success in the second, they hadn't been on the Top 10 leaderboard but suddenly bolted to the top. They stayed there for the remainder of the day, despite going three other races also without collects, including the big race of the day, the Livamol Classic.
The third race drove them towards their second win in the competition, having previously won in 2013, and blocked any hope of a third consecutive success for the defending champions, race commentator George Simon and Havelock North man Tony Clark, who this time were never seriously in the running for the major prize.
The winners turned their starting pool of $1500 into $10,629 - almost twice as much as the runners up. They ended the day with a a profit of $9129 on top of the $20,000 prize they claimed for winning the title.