9,000-1 Gamble Wins Millions for Notorious Punter
Losses are estimated in the region of £15 million by bookmakers today after four horses with connections to notorious punter Barney Curley won yesterday.
The horses were priced as outsiders before their races due to significant time off, and backed in singles, doubles, trebles and four-folds as word spread about the gamble.
Three of the winners, Eye of the Tiger, Low Key and Seven Summits, were previously trained by Mr Curley, while Indus Valley the fourth winner was trained by Des Donovan, known to be a business associate of Mr Curley’s.
The first horse to run was Eye of the Tiger priced at 10-1 having not run for 481 days. Seven Summits was priced at 7-1, backed to 9-4 favourite. Indus Valley was priced at 20-1 the evening before, as word spread it won at 4-6. Finally Low Key who was returning from a 350 day lay-off won at 4-7, backed from 7-1.
As large sums of money were placed, bookmakers slashed their odds and punters jumped on the bandwagon as they noticed something was going on.
Barney Curley is perhaps best known due to a well documented incident at Bellewstown racecourse in 1975 involving a racehorse called Yellow Sam. A large number of punters backed a well-handicapped horse while someone stopped calls being made from the racecourses only phone to so bookmakers couldn’t alert each other. It was estimated that he netted £300k on the day, worth around £1.5m today.
While some bookmakers are playing down their losses today, calling it simply a “Bad day at the office” others are referring to it as “One of the Blackest days in the history of bookmaking”.
One thing is for sure, punters and bookmakers alike will be scanning their race cards for runners with any associations with Mr Curley in the future.
