The one thing that you could say about him was that he was unlucky.
He’d been plagued with bad luck all his life. Things would go smoothly for a while, then right out of the blue, he would do something that sent him straight back into the hard life. Despite all the warnings his mother had given him through the years, sooner or later he would fall foul of some superstition or other.
He had broken mirrors, stepped on cracks, put shoes on tables, spilt salt, crossed paths with black cats, opened umbrellas indoors, got out of bed the wrong side and walked under ladders. If there was anything a person could do that would bring bad luck, he did it!
But today… today could be different.
He woke from an incredibly vivid dream that stayed with him well into the morning. It had shown him that things could change. Over and over the image of a horse named Chancer, carrying a number five, continually came back to him. A check of the paper told him that there really was a horse with that name running today, at odds of five to one.
After scraping together as much cash as possible he went down to the betting office, laid his bet and sat watching the race being televised.
It came fifth.