AP McCoy was denied on his final Cheltenham appearance this evening, but Next Sensation's 16/1 victory in the closing race of the 2015 Festival cemented Sorcha Heron's triumph in Newstalk's punters study.
We set out at the start of the week to examine which policy of picking winners is most effective, and Sorcha - who made her selections based on which horse's names she liked best - came out on against a variety of newspaper pundits and Ivan Yates.
In addition, three of her Newstalk colleagues, Luke Benson, Richie McCormack and yours truly, also partook, each with our own tactic of beating the bookies.
Below are the results of the experiment, and it was based on prize-money 'won' after backing only to win with €1 per race.
€45.00: The I-like-the-horse's-name-and-that's-good-enough-for-me punter (Newstalk's Sorcha Heron)
€12.00: The oh-I-like-the-colour-of-those-silks aficionado (Newstalk's Luke Benson)
€11.11: The shout-at-the-tele-in-office-during-races-like-I'm-ITK favourite-backer (Newstalk's Shane Hegarty)
€6.98: The former bookie-turned-broadcaster (Newstalk's Ivan Yates)
€5.48: The Tipster (Various newspaper racing correspondents)
€0: The loyal, Lotto-playing, long-odds merchant (Newstalk's Richie McCormack)
To verify all of the above you can check our selection for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4 of the Festival.
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