For the first time, this column will offer free financial advice, no strings attached, which may one day see you pocket a handy profit when a loss would have been inevitable.

What follows is the true story of one of the luckiest events to befall this columnist.

Punting on Melbourne Cup Day can be a difficult task.

Not only do you have to find the winner of the big race, comparing form of European, New Zealand and Australian horses, and countless other factors, you also have to find somewhere to get your bets on before it’s too late.

As Cup Day rolls on, the queues get longer and the frustration, and desperation, levels grow.

With this in mind, my lovely wife and I decided to whack on a series of bets with the on-course tote not long after lunchtime at Flemington last Tuesday.

Among them was a $10 win bet on topweight Septimus.

In the hurly burly of Cup Day, the tote operator somehow misinterpreted “$10 a win on No.1 in the Cup” as $10 on No.10 – an error we didn’t pick up until walking a few steps away from the window.

“Are you going back to change it,” asked Mrs Munners, aware we still had time to fix the error.

And here’s the lesson.

Under no circumstances should you go back to the tote or your friendly bookie and alter an incorrectly entered bet.

Sure, go back and put some money on the horse you wanted to back, but never give back the other ticket.

You never know what might happen.

Sure enough, the No.10, Viewed, a horse who received the smallest bets of any of the 22 Cup runners at the Call of the Card at Crown Casino on Monday, held off Bauer by the hairs on his chinny-chin-chin to give this lucky punter $465 he shouldn’t have had.

Septimus was a dud.

More free advice

If you’re a sports lover, and because you’re reading this column I’m guessing you are, you should pencil in a trip to Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup Carnival as a must do if you haven’t been before.

And here’s some more advice.

Get in early and secure some cheap airfares and start saving your money to book a spot in one of the public marquees on Cup Day.

The extra expense is well worth it, especially if it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The marquee gives you somewhere to enjoy a drink or two, place bets, mingle with other racegoers and a place to rest on what can be a long day, as well as a guaranteed grandstand seat.