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three out

The Best Gambling Coups or Swindles

Lets have a list of the best coups or swindles that we have come across.

My favourite is the one about The Hermits of Salisbury Plain. History has it that in the 1900's a horse racing training operation was run out of a place called Druids Lodge stables on Salisbury plain. Apparently the secretism surrounding this makes modern stables and trainers appear like open books. The operation was reported to be backed by some heavyweight city finance guys who were pro gamblers too. They had a horse called hacklers pride which won the cambridgeshire and The Hermits cleared in excess of £7m (in today's money) Later that year they had a horse backed from 25/1 to single figure odds and they scooped c£4m in todays money . Now that, if true (and I really hope it is) is what I call a serious touch
Ruinart

I still think George Bentinck's invention of the horsebox takes the biscuit. I haven't got the details to hand, but the bookies heard the horse was still hundreds of miles away a few days before the race and so wouldn't be in prime condition if he was walked and trotted there. I don't suppose there was a moment when the horsebox slowly trundled past the line of gobsmacked layers, but it's a nice image...

There are quite a few books that these stories are told - David Ashforth's Ringers and Rascals is particularly good on the Flockton Grey affair.

This isn't meant to divert the topic, but has it ever been suggested that the now disgraced Dermot Browne deliberately missed the start of the Champion Hurdle on the hot favourite Browne's Gazette in 1985? He lost 20 lengths. No-one thought anything at the time, because he was one of Dickenson's young star jockeys. But in the light of subsequent events…
alansouthcoast

Three....... Somewhere or other there is a thread similar to this, when i get time i will try and find it. Jenny posted on it too so she may recall the title. Druids Lodge was and indeed still is, considered to be the finest at pulling off gambles in betting history.

Ruinart....I am pretty sure you are talking about the St Ledger. The horse concerned was favourite, and in those days the trainer would ride the horse to the races in the week before hand. Three days before racing the horse was seen prancing around either Epsom or Newmarket. No way could they make the ride and have the horse fresh for the race. The horse box was bought into play, the rest is history, as they say.

My favourite tale is of an oncourse bookie who owned a nag, he entered it against two usefull animals. Knowing it had no chance he offered over the odds to attract mug bets. An old boy duly backed said nag. To the bookies suprise and indeed anguish, his horse won. When the old gent came to collect the bookie said " excuse me sir, m i own the horse that won and it had no chance. What made you back it " The old chap replied " i backed it because i own the other two "
falbrav4ever

I don't know all the details but there was one in Ireland in the late 50s or early 60s.

All the money was put on in small parcels with off course betting shops and they found some way of preventing the off course bookmakers getting on the phone to instruct their reps to shorten it - obviously there weren't any mobile phones in those days.

There wasn't a bean for it on course and it went off at 33-1.
Sky_Of_Darkness

alansouthcoast wrote:


My favourite tale is of an oncourse bookie who owned a nag, he entered it against two usefull animals. Knowing it had no chance he offered over the odds to attract mug bets. An old boy duly backed said nag. To the bookies suprise and indeed anguish, his horse won. When the old gent came to collect the bookie said " excuse me sir, m i own the horse that won and it had no chance. What made you back it " The old chap replied " i backed it because i own the other two "


Absolute gem.
DunDoire

Surely Barney Curleys famous Bellewstown coup is worth a significent mention????

Jack and Sarah ramsden used to run "horse replicas" im led to believe also.
MT VESSELS

I am sure Brian Wright has a few stories to tell !!!!!!

I wonder if anyone can help me with this. The horse and race in question would have been early 1990's and the horse was called Brompton Road.
I remember me Dad coming in and telling me about a local businessman going into the bookies and putting an absolute wedge on it at 20/1. I was out of work at this time but managed to scrape a tenner together. Tried to get the bet on a local but he declined and said SP only but in the end got it on with Laddies at 14/1. It opened up on the course 8/1 and was backed into nearly favouritism. Lead from start to finish with a lead of 20 lengths all the way around until the last fence were the jockey managed to pull the horse from ducking out. Clambered over the last and won by about 5 lengths. Been trying to remember the name of the jockey.
Absolute pearler to pick up a few bob when out of work
Tried looking for the horse on internet but cant. Any ideas???



MT jnr
Danum Dancer

that would be Brompton Road trained bt Richard Lee and ridden by peter Niven. was 5-1 and made all after a long layoff at Carlisle in march 1992


here's the comments in running, that ring a bell
led from 5th, clear from halfway, mistake 4 out, jumped badly left 3 out, stayed on well from next
popeye_uk

I have read loads of these but the one that I liked best was in poachers tales book.

This is from when coarsing with lurchers was a popular pastime (Lurcher dogs to catch hares).

There once was the famous hare, people came with their lurchers from far and wide to wager on catching this speed monster without success. Weekend after weekend this hare outrun the best Lurchers in the area. No matter where they set the lurchers on the hare it always managed to escape through a gap in a hedge at the bottom corner of the field.

One day this old man came along and wagered that his old lurcher could catch this hare no problem, with his lurcher clearly not in the same league of any on view he took on allcomers. (This is of course, where a shrewd man would run a mile )

To cheers and true to form the famous hare dodged the lurcher and bolted for the hedge at the bottom of the field. But a few seconds later they all look on in amazement because the old lurcher is plodding back up the hill with the hare in its mouth! the old man had skinned the lot of them!

It was only later, when they had all gone home with empty pockets, did the old man go back and remove the windscreen from gap in the hedge.
TAFKAB

Barney Curley, Bellewstown, Yellow Sam, Big bloke in the only on course telephone box waiting for news about his sick mother, bookies unable to get the money back off track to lay off their liabiliteis.
best coup ever, End of.
falbrav4ever

Thanks TAFKAB,

When DD said Bellewstown, I was sure we were talking about the same thing.

Thanks so much for filling the gaps in - big bloke in the telephone box...bet he got paid a substantial whack for his services!
DunDoire

Yeah lads it was amazing £300,000.00 (irish pounds - €383,000.00 euro approz) in 1974!!!!! How much is that worth nowadays?? By reckoning it was worth €2,754,557.16 at the end of 2006. Now that is a coup! I remember barney being interviewed (2 years ago i think - his first time back at bellewstown since the coup) - he said all the bookies paid up - especially Mr Graham, had his cheque in a few days! What a sting!

Here is the story put quite succinctly:

Yellow Sam came in at 20/1 netting Curley one of the biggest controlled gambles in Irish racing history.

The idea behind the coup was a simple one. At that time there was only one telephone box at Bellewstown, and this was the only means of communication between the off-course betting ships and the on-course bookmakers who were responsible for forming the betting market.

Barney instructed his hitmen not to back on course, but to put their money on in the off-course betting ships. To stop all communication between the shops and the course, he got a friend to enter that phone box 25 minutes before the race and stay there until the race was on. Another friend was stationed outside as a minder to keep any irate bookies at bay.

Yellow Sam opened at odds of 20/1 and his odds remained static despite the fact that £15,300 was placed on him in the off-course betting shops. He romped home and Curley and his team took home £300,000.

DD
cre8flow

guy comes into a town in the states in the 30s...he acqauints himself with members of country club over the next several months...he plays the members becomes friends with them....one day he gets to play the club pro and loses...he then proposes a bet that he will beat the club pro playing opposite handed...members get up the money-a substantial amount like $30k-they play and the guy beats the club pro
popeye_uk

There was one with the meeting that never was.... Sporting life are told there is a horse racing meeting taking place at such and such (the place did not exist) - team put bets down on a variety of races at this meeting with several bookies ......and then ring the Sporting Life with the results!

An accidental misprint about the price of one nag in the Life alerted authorities or it would have been the best coup ever - genius!
alansouthcoast

Popeye, thats the on the thread i mentioned that i still cant find. They invented a course down in the West Country and got the local paper to publish the " results "
Ruinart

Falbrav - your Irish one sounds like the template for the Gay Future coup at Cartmel 1974, which I think most of us will know about: one man just stayed in the only phone box for half an hour while small sums were put on a treble throughout Britain. Of course, two of the horses had no intention of showing up, so everything piled up on the third . . .

if I could go back to one time and place, it would have been a bookie's at that moment, listening to the Extel commentary and watching the shop manager's face.
jetcrowts

[quote="MT VESSELS"]I am sure Brian Wright has a few stories to tell !!!!!!

And plenty of time in his hands to tell them

Jet............
kittochsider

Re: The Best Gambling Coups or Swindles

three out wrote:
Lets have a list of the best coups or swindles that we have come across.

My favourite is the one about The Hermits of Salisbury Plain. History has it that in the 1900's a horse racing training operation was run out of a place called Druids Lodge stables on Salisbury plain. Apparently the secretism surrounding this makes modern stables and trainers appear like open books. The operation was reported to be backed by some heavyweight city finance guys who were pro gamblers too. They had a horse called hacklers pride which won the cambridgeshire and The Hermits cleared in excess of £7m (in today's money) Later that year they had a horse backed from 25/1 to single figure odds and they scooped c£4m in todays money . Now that, if true (and I really hope it is) is what I call a serious touch
]

If you want to read all about it then get your hands on a copy of "The Druis Lodge Confederacy" by Paul Mathieu.
Hacklers Pride was their biggest coup but by no means their only one.
It's a very good read.....
three out

Re: The Best Gambling Coups or Swindles

kittochsider wrote:
three out wrote:
Lets have a list of the best coups or swindles that we have come across.

My favourite is the one about The Hermits of Salisbury Plain. History has it that in the 1900's a horse racing training operation was run out of a place called Druids Lodge stables on Salisbury plain. Apparently the secretism surrounding this makes modern stables and trainers appear like open books. The operation was reported to be backed by some heavyweight city finance guys who were pro gamblers too. They had a horse called hacklers pride which won the cambridgeshire and The Hermits cleared in excess of £7m (in today's money) Later that year they had a horse backed from 25/1 to single figure odds and they scooped c£4m in todays money . Now that, if true (and I really hope it is) is what I call a serious touch
]

If you want to read all about it then get your hands on a copy of "The Druis Lodge Confederacy" by Paul Mathieu.
Hacklers Pride was their biggest coup but by no means their only one.
It's a very good read.....


Cheers - will look out for that - it is only a story I know in passing but is one that sounds like fun!
three out

I guess Harry Findlay is a modern day punters man - betting to win £2m on your own horse - top man!
MT VESSELS

Danum Dancer wrote:
that would be Brompton Road trained bt Richard Lee and ridden by peter Niven. was 5-1 and made all after a long layoff at Carlisle in march 1992


here's the comments in running, that ring a bell
led from 5th, clear from halfway, mistake 4 out, jumped badly left 3 out, stayed on well from next


Thanks Danum, has brought it back to memory a bit better. Peter Niven played a blinder that day, how he got the horse over the other side when it tried to duck out, i will never know.

MT jnr
Parsons Legacy

Surely there must be a fine line between a coup and damn right corruption?!
JDFUNKY

Parsons Legacy wrote:
Surely there must be a fine line between a coup and damn right corruption?!


There is - it depends on how much you win!!!!
alansouthcoast

Here is another link for you all.

http://forum.sports-pro.co.uk/about375.html&highlight=scam
alansouthcoast

I have bumped this thread up for anyone who has not seen it before. Archie asked about a thread for racing stories, and i recalled we had started this on. Feel free to add any more.
Gorg_George

Great thread. The thought of the old-time coups will always make me smile inside.
alansouthcoast

Gorg_George wrote:
Great thread. The thought of the old-time coups will always make me smile inside.


Graham Sharpe, who is/was William Hills PR man wrote a small book of them. This one was from him.

William Hill was socialising with Raymond Guest, a prominant owner. Guest mentioned he had a two year old colt, what price woulld Will Hill let him have for the following years Derby. Will Hill offered him £500 E/w at 100/1

The horse......Sir Ivor.... The s/p 4/5       Opps

I guess the old boy would cringe, watching people trying to place a decent bet these days.
RightJudgeIam

cre8flow wrote:
guy comes into a town in the states in the 30s...he acqauints himself with members of country club over the next several months...he plays the members becomes friends with them....one day he gets to play the club pro and loses...he then proposes a bet that he will beat the club pro playing opposite handed...members get up the money-a substantial amount like $30k-they play and the guy beats the club pro


yeah the guy was a leftie but played well enough right handed.. turned out to be a champion... read the story on some golf website
alansouthcoast

Hardly a coup but i thought it was funny. Yesterday i went out to place my Doncaster bets, while i was in the shop a dog race was about to start. The three dog was a big price but on form in with a shout. I had an odd £1 coin in my pocket so i backed it.  Another guy who had a hefty bet on the fav saw this. The three dog won easily, virtually as the traps opened sprinting clear.

My mate said...."Wow did you have a whole pound on it" I said "How much have you won ?" He said "Nothing"  I replied " Well i have won six quid, so i guess im doing better than you "  

The moral of the story, a win is a win.

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