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

Long Odds on Four Horses

The story started on evening, as odds began showing up for some of Wednesday’s races tuesday. There were four horses in all, each coming off a layoff that is long race at fairly long odds. Horses Eye regarding the Tiger and Indus Valley were both longshots that are 20-1 while Seven Summits and Low Key had been more reasonably priced at 7-1. in every situation, a $1 accumulator bet on all four horses to win might have earned a bettor around $13,000 at Bet365, if the bets came in at simply the proper time when all four races were on the board plus the odds were as favorable as possible.

Estimates of so just how money that is much lost by bookmakers through the four unlikely winners diverse significantly. One spokesman for Paddy Power said that the industry-wide hit could have been as great as £15 million ($24.9 million), though others said a more likely figure was at the number of £2 million ($3.3 million).

Some bookmakers, such as Ladbrokes, avoided the largest losings by only posting chances later in your day, though many bettors acquired on the connected horses also because the chances started to fall.

‘We dodged a lot of the morning hours frenzy, but you cannot stop moving trains and we got caught up in a few of it once the day panned out,’ said Ladbrokes mind of consumer PR David Williams. ‘Our choice never to price the Kempton events up until as late as possible helped protect us through the worst from it and now we certainly weren’t exposed to any of the business that is overnight all the fancy prices were snapped up.’

Unlikely Winner

Bookmakers started initially to become dubious as the odds on all four horses fell in betting morning. The horse had been bet all the way down to an even money favorite despite the fact that he had not run for 481 days, and had failed to win in any of his previous four races by the time Eye of the Tiger ran at Lingfield.

Sure sufficient, Eye of the Tiger won his battle. When stewards at the track launched an inquiry into the winner, these people 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 times that are several but came into the race healthier, with Donovan calling him ‘a genuine horse.’

Soon thereafter, Seven Summits would win their battle at Catterick by way of a length . 5. At race time, he had been bet down to a 9-4 favorite, though that has been partially because another favorite had been scratched through the race. Seven Summits was also previously trained by Curley.

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

‘He has constantly shown ability but we were lucky the next just switched it in,’ Donovan said.

Finally, Low Key was set to race at Kempton, and had moved from a 7-1 shot up to a favorite that is 7-4. Although his last race 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 significant drop in course compared to past races.

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