Let’s be honest – 2021 started with a whimper rather than a bang for most of us with Paddy’s much-anticipated Millionaire Chase £1m New Year’s Day giveaway at Cheltenham being postponed due to flooding on the track.
Our brave boffins persevered and rescheduled the big day for January 30th only to see that fall foul of the weather once again.
Couldn’t happen again, right? Wrong! Snow stopped play on Saturday, February 13 and we thought we were well and truly jinxed.
But that was then and this is now because Paddy is giving away £1m at Sandown on March 13th in the 2.25pm Imperial Cup – just before the Cheltenham Festival comes under orders three days later.
And that’s not all. As proud sponsor of the Paddy Power Imperial Cup we’ll also being putting up a £50k bonus to the horse that wins the Imperial Cup and goes on to win any race at the Cheltenham Festival the week after.
If you somehow missed it, we’ve been running qualifiers over the last few months leading up to the Millionaire Chase and all our lucky sweepstake spot owners have already been paid £/€10,000 just for making it this far – with a further £/€990,000 going to whoever draws the winning horse in the big race.
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In the hat so far are Carol from Co Cork who had a birthday to remember when backing the winner in the first qualifying race, Stimulating Song, way back on the 14th of November at Cheltenham. The next Paddy Punter to pocket £/€10,000 just for making it to the Millionaire Chase was Chris from Mohill who didn’t even know what he was opting in for when correctly picking First Flow to triumph at Ascot on November 21st. Some people have all the luck.
Sometimes luck evens itself out and that was the case for our third qualifier and Cloth Cap backer Geoff from Bootle who described his selection in our sweepstake as ‘karma’ following a recent break in at his house. Politolouge then got it done for Owen the farrier from Dublin in the fourth race.
Kim from London celebrated the end of a gruelling 12-hour shift with a surprise call from Paddy to tell her she was our lucky winner in the fifth qualifying race thanks to Song For Someone’s win at Cheltenham on December 12th. The final qualifying race winner was Garth from Godalming who picked Not So Sleepy to win at Ascot on December 19th because he looked the nicest horse. Everyone’s got their own method, I suppose.
We’ve had three further entrants qualify through Paddy’s Rewards Club, including Jillian from Edinburgh, a heroic care-home worker who admitted ‘winning 10k is a very welcome distraction!’ after a tough 12 months. We drew our final two entrants from wildcard entrants on January 28th so we’re all ready to go next weekend.
Just pray for good weather, people.
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- I just picked the horse that looked nicest says week 6 winner
- I’d been working 12 hour shifts & hadn’t a clue I’d won
- I’ve a million more reasons to watch on New Year’s Day now says week 4 winner
- This must be karma after break in says week 3 winner
- I hadn’t a clue I’d won €10k prize says second winner in £1m giveaway
- Birthday girl lands €10k booty as first qualifier for Millionaire Chase