Yellow Sam and the occupied telephone box

Twenty-five minutes before a race at Bellewstown on 26 June 1975, Benny O’Hanlon entered the public telephone box and pretended to speak to a dying aunt. According to a later account by The Telegraph’s Marcus Armytage, the hospital did not exist, but the performance was convincing enough that nobody tried to move him along. O’Hanlon, a friend of Barney Curley, stayed in the box for half an hour. While he talked, Curley’s money was being placed on Yellow Sam in betting shops across Ireland.

The telephone mattered because Curley needed those bets to remain invisible to bookmakers at the County Meath course. Heavy backing elsewhere could prompt the on-course bookmakers to shorten Yellow Sam’s odds, reducing the return. Bellewstown had two telephone lines: the public box and a private line belonging to Extel, which supplied racing information to betting shops. The Extel line was out of service that day. With O’Hanlon occupying the other, off-course bookmakers could not reach their counterparts at the track.

Curley had bought Yellow Sam and entrusted his preparation to trainer Liam Brennan, with instructions to target Bellewstown’s amateur riders’ hurdle. The horse was first run in races under unsuitable conditions or over unsuitable distances, helping to secure a favourable handicap. On the day of the gamble, bookmakers offered 20–1.

Curley placed friends and accomplices in betting shops around the country without telling them the horse’s name beforehand. They had sealed instructions and between £50 and £300 to stake. Ten minutes before the race, Curley began a chain of telephone calls: those he contacted were to ring others, who would place the bets. In all, he committed about £15,000, described in accounts of the coup as his entire savings.

As the bets arrived, bookmakers away from Bellewstown tried to pass some of their exposure to bookmakers on the course. They could not get through. The money wagered around Ireland did not bring Yellow Sam’s starting price down. He went off at 20–1.

Curley was at Bellewstown, but not in plain sight. To avoid attracting bookmakers’ attention, he concealed himself in gorse in the centre of the course. Michael Furlong rode Yellow Sam to victory by two and a half lengths. Armytage reported that Furlong learned about the betting operation only from the following day’s newspapers.

Accounts vary slightly on the sum, but put the return at roughly IR£300,000. Armytage reported that nothing about the operation was illegal, leaving the bookmakers obliged to pay. They settled in single notes. The money filled 108 bags.