The story of the most daring betting coup ever attempted

Winelover

Murphys Stroke - Anyone see this film lately.

I vaguely remember seeing it before. Interested in seeing it again. Cant seem to find it in local video stores (Swords)..

Anyone know best place to source this??

kc66

A program about it has been shown on RTE twice recently. It was genius how they did it.
You can buy it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004YSLB/203-3343285-7091921

Winelover

Excellent kc66 I should of known to try amazon.

Was talking about it with a group of lads the weekend in the pub whilst watching leopardstown.

It is some Story.. 300K in 1974 !!!

kc66

It was funny the way there was only one phone at the track (was it Plumton?) and the bookies had to share it. The lads kept it occupied all day so the bookies couldn't hear about the betting outside the track.

Bluetonic

I like the Barney Curley sting myself in Bellewstown 1975.

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.

Barney was up on the hill in Bellewstown last year to celebrate the 30th anniversary, Colin Murray presented him with a trophey to mark the event!

Roll on Bellewstown again this years. It's always an excellent meeting.

fr wishy washy

kc66 wrote:

It was funny the way there was only one phone at the track (was it Plumton?) and the bookies had to share it. The lads kept it occupied all day so the bookies couldn't hear about the betting outside the track.

Twas Cartmel afaik,they might have got away with it if their Trainer had been more careful regarding the "withdrawn Horses"..

clusk007

Found it stocked here

http://www.sendit.com/video/item/7000000086218

Twickers

Does anyone know from where I can obtain the Murphys Stroke DVD ?

Gavin "shels"

I'm guessing you could download it from below & burn to a DVD if it needs to be on DVD

Twickers

Thanks Gavin - will do

realdanbreen

Did an e/w super Heinz earlier to day, 7 horse, 240 bets.
2 out of 2 up so far. Of the 5 remaining 2 are for Huntingdon which has been abandoned. How will that affect my bet?

hurleronditch

realdanbreen wrote: »

Did an e/w super Heinz earlier to day, 7 horse, 240 bets.
2 out of 2 up so far. Of the 5 remaining 2 are for Huntingdon which has been abandoned. How will that affect my bet?

Your 7 timer becomes a 5, your 5s become 3s, 4s become doubles, trebles and doubles become singles.

Brock Turnpike

realdanbreen wrote: »

Did an e/w super Heinz earlier to day, 7 horse, 240 bets.
2 out of 2 up so far. Of the 5 remaining 2 are for Huntingdon which has been abandoned. How will that affect my bet?

Keep us posted, Dan

realdanbreen

Brock Turnpike wrote: »

Keep us posted, Dan

Miss else in the 2.55 would make it 3 up!

mountai

Best "Stroke" of recent years was the day Charles Byrnes had an audacious treble up with Davy Russell piloting all three home . One of the owners was not even aware that his horse was in this gamble and the story is he removed the horse from the stable the following morning ( Alegidy) according to rumour . He took the bookies for well over 5 million that day in Roscommon in 2016.

BumperD

I doubt he hit 5m. 1m-2m maybe 5m he’d have retired

Water John

If memory is correct most of those involved in Murphy's stroke were from Cork.

Motivator

Emmet & David Mullins down in Tramore has to be one of the better ones in recent years. They won a fortune that evening.