String of winners hits Paddy Power’s profits

A STRING of winners by the Aidan O’Brien stable has hit first-half profits margins at Paddy Power bookmakers.

In a trading update yesterday, the company said punters got the better of it in the first 19 weeks of the year by backing Irish horses in big races.

The company was not helped by Aidan O’Brien’s double success in the opening two classic races of the British flat season. The Ballydoyle trainer saddled Footstepsinthesand to win the 2000 Guineas and a day later took the 1000 Guineas with Virginia Waters.