‘That’s outrageous’ – Peter Crouch loses £7.8k after being forced into Guinness Cheltenham bet
Peter Crouch found himself forking out a huge sum of money after being on the wrong side of bet at Cheltenham on day three.
The former England striker was among the many famous faces in attendance on Thursday.
Ahead of the action, Crouch appeared on ITV Racing's coverage from the event.
After discussing his limited horse-riding experience, attention turned to a bet he had made with Paddy Power.
The bookmaker explained: "We were going to have a bet for a pint of Guinness but I thought to make things interesting, especially because he was going to take the British runners, I'm taking the Irish runners.
"Rather than a pint of Guinness, how about a pint of Guinness for everyone in the Guinness Village.";
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He continued: "Basically, myself or Crouchy will be buying 1,000 pints of Guinness after the Stayer's Hurdle.
"If an Irish horse wins, Crouchy's buying the pints, if an English horse wins, I'm buying the pints. I think I got the better of this one."
Crouch then admitted: "That's outrageous really, isn't it? Also, I don't know loads about horse racing. I woke up, I had a look at it and I was like, 'we ain't got any chance' and now he's (Power) upped it."
The Stayer's Hurdle, which was sponsored by Paddy Power, was the fifth race of the day.
Unfortunately for Crouch, the Grade 1 race was won by the Henry De Bromhead-trained Bob Olinger.
Under Rachael Blackmore, the Irish horse edged out Teahupoo, the odds-on favourite, after excellently timing a push for the front.
The best finish for a British-trained horse came in seventh with Lucky Place ridden by Nico de Boinville and trained by Nicky Henderson.
As a result of losing the bet, Crouch had to pay for 1,000 pints in the Guinness Village at the Cheltenham Festival.
With a single pint costing £7.80 at the Festival, his total outlay came to an eye-watering £7,800.
Meanwhile, Bob Olinger's win helped to extend Ireland's lead over Great Britain the Prestbury Cup to 13-8 at the end of day three.
The 44-year-old had also revealed it was far from his first time attending the event.
He explained: "This is kind of like a footballer thing, a tradition. I played under Harry Redknapp countless times, obviously he introduced me to it and I've been coming back ever since."
Asked if he used to attend during his playing days, Crouch added: "Yeah, we came. There was a couple of incidents, I remember Harry Redknapp saying to Jonathan Woodgate we couldn't come.
"And then he found out Jonathan had organised a helicopter. So very quickly that changed and Harry was sitting in the front.
"We had some great days and I'll always remember coming here and it always being a really great day. I've always tried to come back since I've retired."
After scoring 106 goals in 468 Premier League appearances, Crouch retired aged 39 in the summer of 2019.