Gay Future, the Cartmel coup and why it went down in racing folklore

Recalling some of the greatest gambles in racing history. This week: Gay Future and a legendary plot

A movie plot made real

The August bank holiday Monday of 1974 has gone down in racing folklore, all because of a horse called Gay Future, a group of plotters dubbed by the newspapers of the day as the Cork Mafia and a cunning betting coup that very nearly worked. It involved a millionaire builder who drove a gold Rolls-Royce, a young trainer who would go on to be one of the best of his generation, a stockbroker, a switch of horses, a remote racecourse, a red telephone box and ultimately a court case. It had all the elements of a movie and that's exactly what it became, starring a future James Bond.

A simple plan

A major part of the Gay Future case's romantic appeal down the years is that there was nothing sinister about the coup. There were no doped horses or bribed jockeys; it was just a straightforward trick to try to beat the bookmakers.

The plan hatched by Tony Murphy – a construction magnate from County Cork; he of the gold Rolls-Royce – involved two horses, two trainers and two jockeys. In all instances, the idea was to hide the identity of the more capable one for as long as possible.

Edward O'Grady, the young, talented Irish trainer, had Gay Future in his yard in County Tipperary, while a substitute, purportedly Gay Future, was sent to the tiny yard of Troon permit-holder and stockbroker Tony Collins. The rules of racing stipulated that any horse had to be in a trainer's care for 28 days before it could race for him, and Collins duly entered Gay Future for a novice hurdle at Cartmel on August 26, bank holiday Monday, while in reality O'Grady was still getting the horse ready to race back in Ireland.

Shortly before the big day, the real Gay Future arrived from Ireland. In a quiet country lane he was transferred to Collins' horsebox and taken to Cartmel, where he spent the night before the race. That part of the plan was in place.

The bets go on

There were other crucial elements. One was that Collins had to enter two other horses on the bank holiday Monday, at Southwell and Plumpton, even though neither horse was an intended runner. Their presence on the racecards was necessary only to camouflage bets on Gay Future.

On the morning of the race, members of the Cork Mafia – which included a Garda superintendent – flew to London and went round the betting shops, placing single bets on Gay Future and combining him in £10 and £15 doubles and trebles with the other two Collins entries. When those two horses were eventually declared non-runners, all the bets became singles on Gay Future at starting price. Those bets alone stood to net them more than £500,000 in today's money.

Meanwhile, more bets were put on at Cartmel, where there was also a late jockey switch. Gay Future was down to be ridden by 7lb claimer Jimmy McNeill but the plot involved his replacement by top Irish amateur Tim Jones.

Gay Future: single bets alone stood to net plotters more than £500,000 in today's moneyCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

A faraway place

The choice of Cartmel for Gay Future's race on one of the busiest days of the racing year was also critical. It was not connected to the bookmakers' Exchange Telegraph 'blower' system, by which they could communicate with the racecourse, and the only means of contact was through a single red public telephone box. Once the bookmakers got wind of the bets building up, as they eventually did, the track's remoteness made it difficult to get money to the on-course betting ring in order to shorten Gay Future's odds.

Without the 'blower', Ladbrokes dispatched a motorbike rider from Manchester to Cartmel with cash to shorten the price of Gay Future, but he didn't arrive until after the race had been run.

By then Gay Future, sent off a 10-1 shot, had cantered to victory by 15 lengths under Jones.

The plot unravels

The bookmakers, considering themselves victims of a scam, refused to pay out, although some did subsequently release the winnings. But the plot was exposed on the evening of the race when a curious Sporting Life reporter telephoned Collins' yard and asked about the two horses who had been non-runners at Southwell and Plumpton. The stable worker who answered the phone revealed both horses hadn't left the yard.

This simple but explosive detail was an oversight by the plotters, arising from the fact that they had failed to tell Collins the whole plan. "No-one had mentioned that the vital ingredient of the bets were the doubles and trebles and the non-runners," Collins said later. "Otherwise I'd have sent the other two horses to the races and simply said they hadn't eaten up and no-one would have batted an eyelid when they were withdrawn."

From courtroom to cinema

After it became clear that the other two Collins entries had never been intended runners, the case ended up in Preston Crown Court in February 1976, where Murphy and Collins were found by majority verdict to be guilty of defrauding bookmakers, even though the judge had made clear his feelings about whether there was even a case to answer and all but told the jury to acquit. The other main players in the scheme were cleared of all charges before the trial commenced.

Murphy and Collins, having been fined a relatively insignificant sum and ordered to pay costs, were warned off for ten years by the Jockey Club.

The romance and roguishness of the storyline led to the 1980 movie Murphy's Stroke, with a young Pierce Brosnan (later James Bond) playing O'Grady.

It was a great story then, and it remains so to this day.

Read these next:

Vincent O'Brien: the astonishing coup that founded a racing empire

JP McManus: 'We loaded up on him – he had been laid out for the race'

Noel Furlong: 'I had £300,000 on Destriero and a lot on the double'

Yellow Sam: a perfectly executed gamble that netted Barney Curley a fortune

Albert Davison: a master plotter who ensured Irish betting shops took a bashing

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