Horse Racing Coup
Big Coupe: Lakerville Unusual Heat Foreverinthegame: Margot Machance (GB) Creachadoir (IRE) Margot Mine (IRE). Coupe De Champagne statistics and form. View results and future entries as well as statistics by course, race type and prize money. The Yellow Sam betting coup was a successful sports betting coup, widely remembered within Irish and British thoroughbred horse racing. The Yellow Sam betting coup was a successful sports betting coup, widely remembered within Irish and British thoroughbred horse racing. It happened at Bellewstown Racecourse on 26 June 1975, and was orchestrated by Barney Curley, an Irish professional gambler, philanthropist behind a charity for impoverished children in Zambia (which he set up after his son's death in 1995), former trainer. Zenyatta (foaled April 1, 2004) is a retired American Thoroughbred race horse mare, winner of 19 starts in a 20-race career.Her sole defeat came in her final race, the 2010 Breeders' Cup Classic where she lost by a neck to Blame in an attempt to repeat her win in the 2009 event.
The Yellow Sam betting coup was a successful sports betting coup, widely remembered within Irish and British thoroughbred horse racing.
It happened at Bellewstown Racecourse on 26 June 1975, and was orchestrated by Barney Curley, an Irishprofessional gambler, philanthropist behind a charity for impoverished children in Zambia[1](which he set up after his son's death in 1995),[2] former trainer,[3] former Jesuitseminarian,[1] failed pub owner,[1] former pop group manager,[1] and entrepreneur. By taking advantage of an under-handicapped horse and the lack of easy communications between the Bellewstown racing course and off-course bookmakers, Curley made a profit of over IR£300,000 (>€1.7m adjusted for inflation) – one of the largest betting coups in Irish history.[4][5]
Barney Curley again made headlines when four horses linked to him won on 22 January 2014, and were estimated to have cost bookmakers 'something in the region of £2million',[2][3] reportedly just the latest of many successes since the Yellow Sam coup.[2]
The coup[edit]
Yellow Sam was a 'slow but steady' horse bought by Curley and was given his name from his father's nickname at the races. Curley instructed the horse's trainer, Liam Brennan, to train Yellow Sam specifically for the somewhat obscure annual National Hunt race at Bellewstown, featuring mostly amateur jockeys. To ensure that the horse would run at least once with a much lighter handicap than would normally be the case, Curley first ran the horse in a series of races on other tracks in unfavourable conditions.[6]
Curley spent weeks developing the plan and putting people in place. On the day of the race, Yellow Sam's starting price was 20–1, but if large sums of money were being placed on the horse, that figure would drop quickly, drastically reducing the coup's potential take. It was for this reason that Yellow Sam was to race at Bellewstown specifically, as the track was serviced by just two telephone lines, one public telephone box and a private telephone line belonging to the Extel company which supplied racing data to betting shops. The Extel line was put out of use [probably cut] early in the day leaving just one telephone line available to communicate to the course bookies who determined the starting prices for the participants.[6][7][8]
Dozens of Curley's friends, acquaintances, and paid accomplices stood in bookmaker's shops across the country with between £50 and £300 and sealed instructions to be opened upon receiving a call. None of the accomplices knew beforehand which horse had been prepared, or in which race it was to run. Curley called six or seven of his people at 2.50 pm, ten minutes before the race was to start, and instructed them to each call ten to twenty others. In all, Curley invested just over £15,000, his entire savings, in the gamble. Twenty-five minutes before the race was about to start, and fifteen minutes before the bets were to be placed, Benny O'Hanlon, a friend of Curley's in on the plot, walked into the telephone booth and pretended to place a call to a dying aunt in a non-existent hospital. His act was convincing, as the queue behind him waiting to use the telephone sympathetically allowed him to continue talking for half an hour, while off-course bookies desperately trying to lay off their liabilities struggled in vain to contact their counterparts on the course.[6][8]
Curley had already built up something of a reputation during his years as a professional gambler, and knew that his presence at the course was likely to cause concern amongst the bookies, and possibly give away the coup before the off. Still, with so much at stake he wanted to see the race first-hand, so he crept into the centre of the course and watched the race concealed in a thicket of gorse. The gamble succeeded, with Yellow Sam winning the 13-hurdle race by two and a half lengths.[6] Since nothing about the coup had been illegal, the bookmakers were forced to pay out the full IR£300,000 (>€1.7m adjusted for inflation). They did, however, pay out the winnings in single notes, filling 108 bags.[5][8]
Aftermath[edit]
The coup made Barney Curley widely known throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom, and made headlines in many Irish and British national newspapers and television reports. To this day, it continues to be listed as one of the greatest betting coups of all time.[7] Curley invested his earnings in a stable of horses which he continued to have trained for specific gambles, and in the purchase of Middleton Park House, a mansion in Mullingar, County Westmeath – for which he later ran a raffle of dubious legality (though his jail sentence for illegally running a lottery was overturned on appeal),[1] earning him over £1m.[6]
Irish bookmakers amended their rulebook following the coup to require that bets of over £100 be placed at least half an hour before the start of the race. Bellewstown Race Course itself played up the coup in later years, and in 2005 ran the 'Seamus Murphy Yellow Sam 30th Anniversary Hurdle', inviting Barney Curley and Liam Brennan to observe the celebrations.[9][10]
Yellow Sam continued to run in other races, and in his autobiography, Curley reported having earned a further £700,000 in bets on the horse before it was retired.[6]
Barney Curley again made headlines when four horses linked to him won on 22 January 2014, and were widely reported to have cost bookmakers 'millions', with a spokesman for British bookmakers Joe Coral admitting they had cost Coral 'a six-figure payout' and estimating 'the industry has been hit for something in the region of £2million'.[2][3] Irish bookmakers Paddy Power 'reported losses of more than €1 million'.[2] This was reportedly just the latest of many successes since the Yellow Sam coup, including a 2010 coup 'that netted more than a £1million'.[1][2]
References[edit]
- ^ abcdefLiam Collins (24 January 2014). 'Barney Curley: A wannabe pop impresario who hit gold at the racetrack'. Irish Independent. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
- ^ abcdefDeclan Whooley (23 January 2014). 'Who is Barney Curley?'. Irish Independent. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
Barney Curley came back into the public consciousness with a bang yesterday after horses linked to the gambler took the bookies for millions.Various figures have been bandied about since the four horse accumulator came in ... Paddy Power reported losses of more than €1 million, but that was just the tip of the iceberg ... In 2010 Curley was the mastermind behind a coup that netted more than a £1million.
- ^ abc'Four-horse gamble landed in Britain as horses with links to Barney Curley justify strong support'. RTÉ. 23 January 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2014.
Coral's David Stevens said: 'Victory for all four horses has cost us a six-figure payout, and based on our losses we would estimate the industry has been hit for something in the region of £2million, which although still costly, is perhaps lower than some claims.'
- ^Bellewstown Races website – HistoryArchived 18 November 2007 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 22 September 2007.
- ^ abHyland, F (2006); Taken For A Ride: Betting Coups And Scandal, Gill & Macmillan (ISBN978-0-7171-4016-9).
- ^ abcdefCurley, B; Townsend, N (1998); Giving a little back: An Autobiography, HarperCollins (ISBN978-0-00-218827-2).
- ^ abSim, A (21 March 2004); The top 10 sporting gambles, The Times. URL last accessed 21 September 2007.
- ^ abcWood, G (24 April 2004); 'Curley finally finds his vocation', The Guardian. (Available online at Buzzle.com. URL last accessed 21 September 2007).
- ^McClean, D (9 July 2005); 'Beating the odds at BellewstownArchived 16 June 2007 at Archive.today', Irish Farmers Journal. Retrieved 21 September 2007.
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Bookmakers were spared losses estimated at millions of pounds after the third leg of an audacious betting coup came unstuck on Sunday.
The layers were prepared for the worst after the first two horses, Fire Away and Blowing Dixie, obliged at short prices after being backed at big odds, with only Gallahers Cross left to run.
The trio were linked together in a variety of wagers with several bookmakers when betting on Sunday’s races opened on Saturday night.
All three were sent off short-priced favourites after being snapped up at double-figure odds.
Paul Binfield, spokesman for Paddy Power, said: “I don’t want to reveal figures, but our liabilities would probably be on a par with others in the industry.
“The trading room at Power Tower breathed a huge sigh of relief when Get The Appeal foiled the gamble and crossed the line in front.”
After the victories of Fire Away and Blowing Dixie, the eyes of the racing world were focused on Gallahers Cross, trained Daragh Bourke, in the bet365 Handicap Hurdle at Musselburgh.
The race may only have carried a winning purse of £4,288, but it was worth an awful lot more to those in on the gamble and those punters would have been sitting comfortably for most of the two-and-three-quarter-mile contest.
Gallahers Cross travelled well up to the second-last flight, only to find little under pressure, and the 4-5 favourite faded into fourth place as the Paul Nicholls-trained Get The Appeal made all the running under Harry Cobden.
Gallaghers Cross BEAT
The last leg of the monster gamble fades in 4th...pic.twitter.com/ngzZINAua1
Until then the three-horse gamble was very much on.
Fire Away, who was available at 22-1 when betting opened, went off the evens favourite as he kick-started the gamble in the bet365 Novices’ Handicap Chase.
Having his first start for Laura Morgan, the eight-year-old romped home by 19 lengths in the hands of Richie McLernon after taking the lead after the third-last fence.
“We’ve had him 11 days. We bought him from Daragh Bourke,” the Leicestershire trainer told Musselburgh’s Twitter account.
“He had a couple of horses for sale. He was one of them. I did go to buy the other one, but we bought him instead.
“Fingers crossed, he can win a few more.”
Backed down from 9-1 to 4-6 favourite, Blowing Dixie brought up the second leg in the Betway Casino Handicap at Southwell.
The Iain Jardine-trained five-year-old looked to benefit from a drop in class when defying top weight by a smooth two and a half lengths in the hands of Andrew Mullen.
“He’s travelled through the race really strong and I wanted something to take me further, but I was there three out, so I let him get on with it,” Mullen told Sky Sports Racing.
“He’s very honest. He likes Southwell. He’s got course form round here and he came good today.
“I spoke to Iain this morning and he said ‘I think I’ve got him as well as I can and if he turns up, he’ll be hard to beat’. He was right.”
Not all bookmakers fell foul of the attempted coup. Simon Clare, head of PR at Ladbrokes Coral, revealed they managed to “dodge a bullet”.
“Our trading team who were on duty last night spotted the path of bets quite quickly and it was clear they were connected, so they reacted quickly and turned off the multiples for those three selections,” he said.
“We were aware something very organised was going on, but we managed not to face anything too scary.
“We saw what other people were saying and had our trader not spotted it and left it another half an hour or an hour, given the huge odds in play, you would have been facing huge liabilities.
“It’s hard to know what other firms were facing. We managed to dodge a bullet.
“Actually, for us, it was much more of those favourites winning was more of a nightmare for us than the attempted coup.”
Horse Pre Race Coupon
At the request of the British Horseracing Authority’s integrity department, the connections of all three horses were interviewed by the race day stewards before their respective races.