By Laura Armstrong A dad who convinced his friends to buy a £8,000 racehorse on a drunken night out has told how the spur-of-the-moment decision helped him survive the darkest year of his life. Anth Freeman, from Darlington, had the idea to get eight pals to fork out for thoroughbred Showtime Mahomes during a drinking session down their local pub – and in an extraordinary rags to riches tale, the horse went on to win at York – dubbed the Ascot of the North – in 2022. The story is set to be told in ITV documentary It’s Showtime! this week. But for Anth it was more than just a bit of fun – it he…