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With a passion and understanding for horses, Murphy won big at the racetrack by using his knowledge and skills.

Murphy’s father trained and raced horses, which sparked his interest in horse racing. From a boy, Murphy had decided to devote himself to caring for and conditioning racehorses. The majority of the horses he worked with were steeplechase horses that competed on the National Hunt circuit in both Ireland and England.

Working for Nicky Henderson

As a result, he was offered the opportunity to work for Nicky Henderson, a National Hunt trainer who is considered to be one of the best in the country. Race horses were galloped for exercise, their manes combed, and manure shovelled by him. Murphy enjoyed the job despite it not being luxurious or paying substantially.

In December 2011, he believed five horses in Mr Henderson’s stable had been trained exceptionally well and were all scheduled to compete in the Cheltenham Festival the following year. Despite the obvious odds against him, Murphy bet $75 on the five horses, including Finian’s Rainbow (8-1), Bobs Worth (10-1), Simonsig (14-1), Riverside Theatre (9-1), and Sprinter Sacre (10-1).

Each of the five horses Murphy bet on had placed first in their events, as well as Finian’s Rainbow, which won the Queen Mother Champion Chase. In his excitement for the horses, Murphy almost forgot about the bet he had placed.

Despite the slim chance of winning all five horses, Murphy’s $75 turned into more than $1.5 million, which led to him quitting his job and becoming his own boss. As soon as Murphy won his big race, he moved to Kentucky to train horses for prominent jockeys. Bronterre, Dimension, and Mon Ami Jolie were three reasonably priced horses he purchased in England before he moved to the United States.

A break from the wacky, to bring you something a little educational and inspirational

History records that the Grade One Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle, run at Leopardstown on December 27, 2017, was won, by a wide margin, by Whiskey Sour, the second-least fancied of four runners trained by Willie Mullins. However, the eventual winner traded as high as 300 on Betfair at one point and to describe the closing stages as ‘eventful’ really doesn’t do justice to the extraordinary drama that entailed over the final two flights of hurdles.

Approaching the second last flight, all of the seven runners bar the rank outsider, Makitorix, were still in contention with favourite Mengli Khan, trained by Gordon Elliott, travelling well in the lead. However, the complexion of the race changed when, for no apparent reason, the leader crashed through the wing of the hurdle, unseating jockey Jack Kennedy and leaving second favourite Real Steel, trained by Mullins, at the head of affairs.

Approaching the final flight, Real Steel was strongly challenged by Sharjah, also trained by Mullins, who was clearly travelling much the better of the pair and traded as low as 1.04 on Betfair. At that point, Willie Mullins appeared to be destined for a 1-2-3, with Whiskey Sour in third place, but making no impression on the leading pair. However, Sharjah failed to lift off and fell, while Real Steel, who appeared to jump the flight well enough, crumpled on landing and fell, independently. That left the diminutive Whiskey Sour – ‘probably the smallest horse in the yard’, according to jockey David Mullins – to avoid his stricken stable companions and saunter home, by 19 lengths, for an unlikely victory.

The late Barney Curley, who died in May, 2021, aged 81, was the mastermind behind some of the most famous betting coups in history. The one that brought him to prominence, though, was the ‘Yellow Sam’ coup, which he orchestrated at Bellewstown in June, 1975.

Yellow Sam was a moderate hurdler in the care of Curragh-based trainer Liam Brennan, who, at the behest of Curley, was laid out to land a ‘touch’ in an amateur riders’ handicap hurdle. Top Irish amateur Michael Furlong was booked for the ride and Curley employed a team of men to place relatively small bets at starting price, just before the ‘off’, at betting shops throughout Ireland. In so doing, he prevented drawing unwanted attention to himself, but also took the additional precaution of having an associate occupy the only public telephone at Bellewstown for half an hour, so that on-course bookmakers could not receive intelligence from the betting shops.

In any event, Yellow Sam won easily at odds of 20/1 and, in so doing, landed bets worth over £300,000, or £2,000,000 by modern standards. However, by having his men place bets judiciously, according to the size of the betting shop, Curley made sure that no single shop paid out more than £6,000.