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'It Was A Very Well Planned Coup, It Was Not Very Well Executed'

Thursday, 1 July 2010

BOOKMAKERS were left in the rare position of counting their losses and licking their wounds after a stunning betting coup on a horse at the last meeting of the Kilbeggan races but it could have been an awful lot worse according to a local bookmaker..
'D Four Dave' was backed down from 14-1 to 5-1 when a spate of bets were placed on him just before the 7.00pm start to the race at the Kilbeggan meeting on Monday week last.
With a couple of fallers in the race, 'D Four Dave' romped home to a remarkably easy win and it was claimed that the audacious gamble won up to 200,000 euros for its architects.
The master mind is believed to be one of the owners of the horse, business man, Douglas Taylor and a series of 200 euro bets were placed on the horse at more than 100 bookmakers throughout Dublin and Kildare.
The bets were supposed to be placed simultaneously to ensure that bookmakers did not have time to smell a rat - If a big amount of money had been placed on the horse earlier in the day, the price would have been slashed instantly - but John Hackett of Hackett Bookmakers told the Tribune that it did not yield the windfall that it could have.
'It was a very well planned coup but it was not very well executed,' said Mr Hackett who explained that the coup echoed a plot in a racing novel by famous author, Dick Francis, called 'Even Money'.
In Douglas Taylor's plan, which is eerily similar to the plot in 'Even Money', 200 gamblers were paid up to 30 euro each to place 200 euros on D Four Dave just five minutes before the start of the Hurley Family Handicap Hurdle at 7.00pm.
Douglas owns a recruitment firm and he hired 200 non nationals to place the bets but unfortunately for him, everything did not go according to plan. Each runner was supplied with an alarmed watch set to go off at 6.55pm, an envelope with the bet written out and the money supplied, and detailed instructions - The instructions said: 'Dear Employee. Enclosed you will find: (1) A completed slip for the betting shop that you have been sent to. (20) 200 euros in cash for which you need to place the bet. (3) A watch with the alarm set to go off at 6.55pm.'
The cost of the gamble was just 7,200 euros with the 200 runners being paid 30 each and the 200 watches costing 6 euros each but the best laid plans can often come unstuck.
Mr Hackett, a Geashill man who is one of the principals in the Hackett Bookmaking chain, explained that some of the non nationals did not have good English and could not read or understand the instructions.
He revealed that while each runner was supposed to place the bet at 6.55pm, some placed it earlier (Some were also too late to place the bet) and this alerted suspicious bookmakers to an impending gamble - Something they are always on alert for -, especially after one runner handed in the written instructions, instead of the bet, to a worker in a Paddy Powers branch at 6.00pm.
Word immediately circulated amongst the closely knit betting shops fraternity and Mr Hackett stated that they only paid out 1,300 euros out of their network of 64 branches on D Four Dave.
While Mr Taylor has said that they won almost 200,000 euros on the gamble, Mr Hackett believes that it may have been closer to 100,000 euros. 'Fair play to them, it was a good gamble,' he remarked, adding: 'It was a very well done coup but it could have been a lot better. No bookmaker was done for a big amount. There was no one badly stung' Mr Hackett also said that no specific chain was targeted and the bets were placed across a variety of bookmakers and he revealed that he has discussed the coup with Paddy Powers, Ladbrokes and Celtic Bookmakers.
Hackett's went on high alert after one punter handed in the instructions instead of the bet at 6.50pm and Mr Hackett became aware of the gamble when he immediately contacted other bookmakers. He instantly placed a restriction on the amount of money that could be placed on D Four Dave and all branches were told to notify head office if anyone attempted to place a large bet.
'It was a good gamble but some didn't do what they were told and some went into shops before time and handed in the letter of instruction instead of the bet. They won good money out of it and have got a lot of publicity,' Mr Hackett declared.
He added: 'Barney Curley (A legendary gambler) said in the Racing Post that if they were working for him, he would have sacked them.'
The horse was available at 14-1 all day but opened at 7-1 on the course and was backed into 5-1. Mr Hackett stated that the price was not cut on course because of money being placed on him, but because bookmakers had become aware that a big gamble was afoot. 'Very few bets were placed at 14-1,' he said, adding that bookmakers would normally take 200 euros on a horse without a second glance.
Bookmakers were especially suspicious as D Four Dave had no known form and was unplaced at his three previous races, including an earlier meeting at Kilbeggan.
Mr Hackett stated that Kilbeggan is a good venue to mount a gamble like this as it is not a big meeting.
Because of the horse's lack of previous form, a steward's enquiry took place afterwards and Mr Hackett said that the stewards didn't dispute the owner's explanation for the horse's dramatic improvement in form.
And for the Kilbeggan Race Course Committee, the gamble represented very good news as money could not pay for the acres of publicity it was afforded in the national and racing media last week.

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