There is absolutely nothing that can match the feeling of striking a double that is daily choose six or other big accumulator at the competition track, especially when that final horse comes in to complete your once-in-a-lifetime payday. But while there have been some epic wins during the period of horse racing history, few compare towards the story that played out this week in the UK as four horses connected to famous gambler Barney Curley pulled off shocking victories that may have cost bookmakers millions.

Long Odds on Four Horses

The story began on evening, as odds began showing up for some of Wednesday’s races tuesday. There have been four horses in all, each coming down a long layoff to race at fairly long odds. Horses Eye of this Tiger and Indus Valley had been both 20-1 longshots, while Seven Summits and Low Key were more fairly priced at 7-1. in almost any situation, a $1 accumulator bet on all four horses to win might have made a bettor around $13,000 at Bet365, in the event that wagers came in at simply the proper time when all four races were on the board plus the chances were as favorable as feasible.

Estimates of just how much money ended up being lost by bookmakers through the four not likely winners diverse significantly. One spokesman for Paddy Power said that the industry-wide hit could are as great as £15 million ($24.9 million), though others said a more likely figure was in the product range of £2 million ($3.3 million).

Some bookmakers, such as Ladbrokes, avoided the largest losings by only posting odds later in the afternoon, though many bettors found in the connected horses also while the chances started to fall.

‘We dodged all the morning that is early, but you cannot stop moving trains and we got caught up in some of it because the day panned out,’ said Ladbrokes mind of customer PR David Williams. ‘Our choice not to price the Kempton races up until as late as possible helped protect us through the worst from it and now we undoubtedly weren’t confronted with any of the overnight business where all the fancy prices were snapped up.’

Unlikely Winner

Bookmakers started initially to become dubious as the odds on all four horses dropped in betting morning. By enough time Eye of the Tiger ran at Lingfield, the horse had been bet all the means down to a straight money favorite regardless of the fact that he had not run for 481 times, and had unsuccessful to win in any of their previous four races.

Sure enough, Eye of the Tiger won his race. When stewards at the track launched an inquiry into the champion, these were told that the horse was now being trained by Dan Donovan, and had formerly been trained by Curley himself. The horse had evidently been injured many times, but came in to the race healthy, with Donovan calling him ‘a genuine horse.’

Soon thereafter, Seven Summits would win their race at Catterick by way of a length and a half. At competition time, he had been bet down to a 9-4 favorite, though which was partially because another favorite was in fact scratched from the race. Seven Summits was also previously trained by Curley.

The horse that is third Indus Valley, was another Donovan-trained runner who had been racing for the first time in almost two years. A 4-6 favorite by the race, Indus Valley pulled off a tough win.

‘He has constantly shown ability but we were lucky the 2nd just switched it in,’ Donovan stated.

Finally, Low Key was set to race at Kempton, and had relocated from a 7-1 shot up to a favorite that is 7-4. Although his last battle saw him finish 7^th of seven horses, Low Key pulled off a win, with trainer John Butler attributing it to the horse being gelded and a drop that is significant class in comparison with past races.

Barney Curley has been a legendary trainer and gambler for decades, though he has largely stayed out of the general public eye. Curley whom states he wins has been finding ways to beat bookies since at least the 1970s that he gets more of a thrill out of beating the bookmakers than from the money. A similar success that is four-horse 2010 netted Curley more than £1 million ($1.66 million).