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.

The Tingle Creek Chase is an open Grade 1 steeplechase run over 1 mile, 7 furlongs and 119 yards at Sandown Park in early December. The race was inaugurated, as a limited handicap known as the Benson & Hedges Gold Cup, in 1969, but renamed as the Mecca Bookmakers’ Handicap Hurdle in 1977. Two years later, the race was renamed after Tingle Creek, a bold, front-running steeplechaser who won the Sandown Handicap Pattern Chase three times, in 1973, 1977 and 1978, breaking the course record on each occasion. Indeed, Tingle Creek also won the race that would eventually bear his name under top weight of 12st 5lb in 1973.

The Tingle Creek Chase did not become a level-weights Grade 1 race until 1994 but, as the Tingle Creek Handicap Chase, was won by none other than Desert Orchid; on December 3, 1988, ‘Dessie’ had little difficulty in conceding 18lb and upwards all ’round to five rivals, including Panto Prince.

Since 1994, the roll of honor reads like a ‘Who’s Who’ of two-mile chasing talent over the last four decades, with Viking Flagship, Flagship Uberalles, Moscow Flyer, Master Minded and Sprinter Sacre among those to have completed the Tingle Creek Chase/Queen Mother Champion Chase double. Dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Kauto Star also won back-to-back renewals of the Tingle Creek Chase in 2005 and 2006. Paul Nicholls, trainer of Flagship Uberalles, Master Minded and Kauto Star – not to mention Dodging Bullets and Politologue, who both also became Champion Chasers – is the leading trainer in the history of the Tingle Creek Chase, with 12 wins in all.