Punters romp home after bookies hit by €2.5m ‘weapons-grade coup’

It must have been a case of déjà vu for bookmakers as four horses with a link to legendary Irish gambler and former trainer Barney Curley won in exceptional circumstances netting punters more than €2.5m.

Almost 40 years after Curley’s famous Yellow Sam betting coup at Bellewstown in 1975 and three years after a similar betting feat, four horses which had had lengthy absences shot to victory at Lingfield, Catterick, and Kempton in what Paddy Power described as a “weapons-grade coup”.

Before bookmakers realised they were facing a potential “multimillion-pound bloodbath” the horses had been well backed at favourable odds. They duly slashed the odds on Eye of the Tiger, Seven Summits, Indus Valley and Low Key — Indus Valley went from 10-1 to 4-6 with one bookie — to limit the damage but still faced hefty payouts.