What was already a bad weekend for the bookmakers was one winning favourite away from being a great deal worse on Sunday, as Gallahers Cross, 4-5 for the final race at Musselburgh, could finish only fourth after the first two legs of a well-orchestrated gamble had returned as easy winners.
All leading online betting firms saw significant activity on Saturday evening linking Daragh Bourke’s Gallahers Cross, who was on offer at prices up to 40-1, with Fire Away, an early 22-1 shot for the opening race at Musselburgh, and Blowing Dixie, initially around 12-1 for a Flat handicap at Southwell.
All three horses had been struggling badly to find any worthwhile form in their recent starts, but the gamble continued throughout the day and Fire Away, who joined Laura Morgan stable from Bourke’s yard less than a fortnight ago, started at even money before coming home a long way clear. Blowing Dixie, eventually sent off at 4-6, also ran out an easy winner.
One major online firm suggested shortly before Gallahers Cross set off in the final leg of the treble at 4.25 that it faced potential liabilities approaching half a million pounds. Across the industry as a whole, that hinted at a potential loss of at least £2m but a full reckoning was not required, as Gallahers Cross faded tamely into fourth having looked like a major player two flights from home.
There were few obvious links between the three horses involved in Sunday’s gamble, although Bourke had trained Fire Away until the horse’s recently move to Morgan’s stable. Bourke and Iain Jardine, the trainer of Blowing Dixie, are also based around 30 miles from each other in the Scottish borders. The Welly Wobblers Club is listed as the owner of Fire Away, while both Blowing Dixie and Gallahers Cross race in the colours of their trainers.
At the request of the British Horseracing Authority’s Integrity Department, the stewards at Musselburgh and Southwell took the unusual step of interviewing the connections of all three horses prior to racing, when they were “asked to provide information regarding the selection of the race [for their horse], their expectations for today and the riding instructions given”. The comments were noted by the officials.
Willie Mullins’s stable now houses the clear favourite for nine of the Cheltenham Festival’s 14 Grade One events following a five-timer on the final day of the Dublin Racing Festival, highlighted by Kemboy’s battling success in the Irish Gold Cup.
Kemboy (pictured) made all the running under Danny Mullins and stayed on strongly from the last to beat The Storyteller by two lengths. The nine-year-old is now around 12-1 for the Cheltenham Gold Cup next month, in a market headed by his stable companion Al Boum Photo, the Gold Cup winner for the last two seasons, at 3-1.
Appreciate It, another front-running winner for Mullins in the card’s Grade One novice hurdle, has shortened to around 7-4 for the Supreme Novice Hurdle, while Monkfish, who powered away from his field to win the Grade One Flogas Novice Chase, is 11-10 for the Festival’s three-mile novice chase.
Gordon Elliott, whose four-year-old Quilixios was a ready winner of the Spring Juvenile Hurdle, was the only trainer to threaten Mullins’s domination on Sunday. The winner will now head to the Triumph Hurdle as a 6-1 chance, behind stable companion Zanahiyr (currently 11-4).
“When it comes together, it gives a lot of satisfaction to the whole team,” Mullins said. “I’ve a great team of owners and a great team of staff and I’m delighted for them, and for all the jockeys who rode us winners as well.” Greg Wood
While some big-priced doubles were no doubt landed as a result of the first two horses winning, the bookies’ eventual losses on Sunday’s gamble are likely to have been outstripped by those at the two-day Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown, where seven of the eight Grade One races were won by the market leader.
Minella Indo, unplaced behind the 11-4 winner Kemboy in Sunday’s Irish Gold Cup, was the only beaten favourite in a Grade One all weekend in Ireland, after wins on Sunday for Quilixios (4-6), Appreciate It (1-3) and Monkfish (1-2).
How did attempted coup come about?
While the layers were spared a further big payout when Sunday’s attempted coup came unstuck at the last, the gamble had clearly been carefully planned and was an intriguing sub-plot to the afternoon’s Grade One action in Ireland.
It also served to highlight the contrasting opinions among punters about the merits, or otherwise, of a good old-fashioned coup, something that has become increasingly rare in recent years as online bookmakers set their radar for winning punters to maximum and do all they can to limit their exposure to “smart” money.
Some backers love nothing more than a decent gamble and the thought that someone might stick one on the bookies for a change. Others complain that it does nothing for the sport’s image when a plunge in the market reveals something about a horse’s chance than its recent form does not.
One of several interesting aspects of Sunday’s gamble is that the BHA’s Integrity Department was involved at an early stage, ensuring that the stewards asked some questions of connections before any of the three horses had run.
None of the three horses, though, were without a nugget or two of form in the book to suggest they had some sort of chance (assuming, that is, that you were willing to dig back far enough). Blowing Dixie had four previous course-and-distance wins at Southwell, the most recent in January 2020, while Fire Away and Gallahers Cross are both quite lightly raced over jumps, on lowly marks and open to improvement.
Had they been running in the colours of an owner known for liking a punt, one or all could have triggered the bookmakers’ early-warning systems rather earlier than was actually the case. But it is another unusual feature of the attempted coup that the trainers of both Blowing Dixie and Gallahers Cross are also listed as their horse’s owners.
Someone, it seems, was well aware that all three horses – including Gallahers Cross, for all that he finished fourth – would improve abruptly on their recent form on Sunday. But since all three had different owners, how could an individual come by that knowledge without privileged information being compromised somewhere? Even though the treble eventually went down, it is a question that needs to be asked.
Newcastle
12.25 Hackberry
12.55 Quest For Life
1.30 King D’Argent
2.00 Moon King
2.35 Rubytwo
3.05 Onthefrontfoot
3.35 Looksnowtlikebrian
4.10 Return Ticket
4.40 Busy Street
Carlisle
12.30 Malpas
1.00 Hang Tough
1.35 Crack Du Ninian
2.10 Graces Order
2.40 Jack Valentine
3.10 Kapga De Lily
3.40 Nells Son
Plumpton
1.45 Casa Loupi
2.20 Poldark Cross
2.50 Notre Pari
3.20 Call Off The Dogs
3.50 Demopolis
4.20 Penny Poet
Wolverhampton
4.30 Rockesbury
5.00 Open Mystery
5.30 Cahors (nb)
6.00 Molliana
6.30 Atheeb (nap)
7.00 Yankee Stadium
7.30 Quoteline Direct
Monday’s best bets
To no one’s great surprise, Plumpton and Carlisle have both succumbed to the elements, leaving a big card of jumpers bumpers at Newcastle and a Flat meeting at Wolverhampton as the only action in Britain on Monday.
There are probably a few punters somewhere who love nothing more than an afternoon spent watching jumping horses run in races with no jumps. This punter, though, is not one of them and will be sitting it out until Cahors (5.30) goes to post at Wolverhampton on Monday evening.
Tony Carson’s filly is available at around 7-1 in a market dominated by Global Response and Rockett Man, both of whom were winners last time out. Cahors also has a win to her name but has yet to race on anywhere but Southwell, which may be one factor in her price, but if she can reproduce or improve on her Fibresand form then an opening mark of 70 could prove to be quite lenient.
Atheeb (6.30) is also worth close inspection at around 9-2 later on the card. George Boughey’s runner was beaten around half-a-length in a blanket finish at Lingfield last time after being forced to switch and is a leading player based on his win at the same track in June in a very strong time.
