British bookies counting six-figure losses after 'Fair Hill five' pull off extraordinary US coup

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A six-figure betting coup was pulled off in betting shops in Britain on Sunday after four out of five horses from the same training centre won in the US.

Three of the runners were trained by Angel Quiroz, with The Great Amira (16-1) landing the first leg by a whopping nine lengths at Monmouth Park before Tepeyac (19-5) doubled up in the next race. Scootaloo, Quiroz's third runner, could finish only fourth at Saratoga.

The other two – Classic Rock (2-1) and M Bs Melanie Cares (13-2) – were trained by Ernesto Ochoa and won later on the Saratoga card. 

The group of horses, who until recently had been trained at Gulfstream Park, have been dubbed 'the Fair Hill five', as they all hailed from that training centre in Maryland, with records suggesting they were prepared in workouts at Fair Hill.

The winners, who were traded at odds as big as 17-1, 12-1, 12-1 and 9-1, had little form to recommend them and were running off the back of significant absences.

The coup could have been even greater as another horse involved finished second at Colonial Downs, while two further runners were set to run on Monday. Threedots Andadash was scratched at Presque Isle due to being on the vet's list, while Bravo Rough, a predicted 1-9 favourite, was scratched for reasons unknown when in the paddock at Mountaineer.

Pat Cummings, executive director of the National Thoroughbred Alliance, told the Nick Luck Daily podcast: "It was a pretty unusual set of circumstances, but at least part of this coup did come off with four of the six winning on Sunday.

"Our understanding is this was executed physically in betting shops in England. The degree of sophistication that is required to go into shops and bet on American racing; I'm told it was more than ten shops that may have been hit. 

"To get six races, four wins and a second, if you're playing each-way parlays [accumulators] and trebles, there's a lot of damage that can be done there. A source of mine was suggesting it was £600,000-£800,000 of liability."

Paul Binfield, representing Paddy Power, said: "We saw some of the business in our UK retail estate and were alive to it in real time. It was a fairly remarkable attempted gamble, the likes of which we’ve never really seen before.

"It’s cost us a few quid, but nothing eyewatering as luckily for us they only managed four of the six on Sunday as otherwise we would then have been looking at some more substantial payouts."

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