Robin Oakley

The coup that nearly cost the bookies £10 million

Coup-master supreme: Irish professional gambler Barney Curley, the brains behind the Yellow Sam betting coup [Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images] 
issue 20 February 2021

Since coup conspirators nearly won £10 million from the bookies, the sport has divided into two camps. Some grinned and wished good luck to the schemers in their efforts to worst the Old Enemy; others insisted with sober faces that it was a scandal which besmirched racing and diddled honest punters who weren’t in the know.

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