The extraordinary story of Barney Curley, the fearless punter who DID beat the bookmakers
When Barney Curley, the legendary Irish racehorse trainer and professional gambler, landed a spectacular gamble with a horse he owned called Yellow Sam at the Bellewstown race course in Ireland in 1975, it was through a coup that was relatively easy to pull off. He spread an outlay of slightly more than £15,000 across 300 betting shops using a team of trusted associates, and ensured that even if any of the high street bookmakers taking bets on the horse did become suspicious, their attempts to alert their colleagues at the track would be foiled because the solitary phone line to the Bellewstown circuit was being hogged by another of his team, pretending he was speaking to a dying relative. Yellow Sam won Curley more than £300,000, which was then the equivalent of £2.5 million at today's values. Modern technology means there is no way such a coup could be successful today. Betting patterns can be evaluated in seconds and every on-course bookmaker has his own mobile phone.