'It wasn't a publicity stunt and we laid the bet - £100,000 at 8-1' - Paul Byrne reveals the truth about the monster wager with Fitzwilliam

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Fact or fiction? That's what you all want to know. 

The "whopper", as Johnny Dineen christened it, was an astonishing £100,000 bet on I Am Maximus at 8-1 with Fitzwilliam. It was the talk of the town, and the press room, and the betting ring, and all the bars, and even the urinals in the men's bog as an elderly gentleman leaned in uncomfortably close to me as we relieved ourselves and wondered if it were true. "It's just a publicity stunt," he reckoned. Well, let's find out. 

"No, absolutely not. It wasn't a publicity stunt," said Paul Byrne, the owner of Fitzwilliam. "The bet was laid. I thought it looked a good opportunity to lay at 8-1 and back it back at 9-1 or bigger to make an earn on the bet. At the time we laid the bet, he was 9-1 on the exchanges for good money. We took £18,000 at 9-1 and another £22,000 at a little over 8-1. After that, we decided to wait to move the rest."