Death of 'legendary' bookmaker Jimmy Hayes, once the formidable gambling partner of JP McManus

Leading on-course bookmaker Ray Mulvaney has led the tributes to Jimmy Hayes, the "legendary" layer who has died at the age of 74. 

Hayes suffered a bleed to the brain following a fall in the grandstand during racing at Tipperary on Thursday evening and died on Friday morning. 

Hayes formed a formidable gambling partnership with JP McManus, who has since become the pre-eminent jumps owner in Britain and Ireland, after the pair made the decision to team up together to take on the bookmakers having frequently ended up backing the same horses in races as individuals.

It led to the duo being dubbed Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid after the outlaw stars of the iconic Western film of the 1960s.

"It's shocking news," said Mulvaney, chairman of the Irish National Bookmakers Association. "He was a great friend of ours. I was very close to him and [my uncle] Seamus and my father were very close to him, as well. He will be sadly missed and my deepest sympathies go to his wife Sally, and his children Richard, Jane and Niall.

"Jimmy was a nice fella, a great guy. He didn't say much but when he did say something you listened. He was good fun, too, and always had a few drinks with us, but when it came to the form book, especially when I was a kid going racing in the 80s, he was unbelievable. He was ahead of his time. 

"They called Jimmy and JP Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid once upon a time. When those two became a partnership, they were really feared. He knew the form book inside out."

Mulvaney added: "I wouldn't use the word legend in the bookmaking ring too often, but I'd have no problem calling Jimmy a legend. That's what he was.

"The fellas in those days knew how to keep a secret. There were no mobile phones, no internet, but he had the form book and his wits about him. The stories we will never know would make a great movie and some amount of books!"

Johnny Dineen, co-host of the Racing Post's flagship YouTube show Upping The Ante, was a former colleague of Hayes in the Irish betting ring. He said: "Jimmy was a very decent man, a tough adversary in the betting ring but an extremely honourable and fair man who took both winning and losing in the exact same manner."