The €250 each-way bet at 100/1 on Rocky's Diamond © Photo Healy Racing
On-course bookmaker Brian McDonnell has confirmed the veracity of a €250 each-way bet struck at 100/1 on Friday, with industry losses from a Declan Queally-trained Limerick/Ballinrobe cross-card double exceeding €500,000.
Private operator on-course layers incurred big losses on the day while a source from an unnamed off-course major betting firm has also reported a €339,000 payout from a ‘double’ struck on both winning horses.
Opening leg winner Rocky’s Diamond front-ran at Limerick — having been backed minutes before the off from 100/1 to 22/1 s.p., while minutes later at Ballinrobe, Diamond Nora was cut from 150/1 to 16/1, before completing the audacious double.
One major betting firm source has confirmed a €30 each-way double struck at an off-course betting shop two hours before racing rewarded a customer with a €339,000 payout, having combined both horses at odds of 80/1 and 125/1.
Meanwhile a photo of bookmaker Jerry McDonnell's docket for €250 each-way placed at 100/1 has gone viral on X (posted by @joeseward1) with his son bookmaker Brian McDonnell confirming he laid the Limerick bet, for a liability of €30,000.
Speaking from his pitch at Tipperary races today, Brian McDonnell confirmed "I laid the bet to a good customer and while he asked for a much bigger bet, we negotiated to a level I felt he was entitled to have.
“It was a really bad day for us but if I had allowed him the bet he asked for, it would have been desperate.
“The customer struck the bet six minutes before the off and if the race started 20 minutes later, he’d still have been putting money on. I was out of the game after laying the bet and Tocky McCarthy (bookmaker), who was standing beside me, was taken next.
"There was no point going to my fellow bookmakers (to hedge) at 100/1 and 50/1, as they weren't going to lay me and I was stuck with it. I used the exchanges but only to a certain figure, as they don't have enough liquidity.
"Bookmakers had assumed he was backing the favourite or second-favourite because they couldn't see the price changing (on the long-shot) and couldn't figure out which horse he was backing, until he went to them.
“That helped him get around the ring and I quickly realised he was trying to take every bookmaker out - which he had a fair go at. In the region of €100,000 was won at Limerick and my bet was settled that day.”
Regarding the second leg, he added “I sent a message to Ballinrobe to say what was going on but as the horse passed the line at Limerick, the reply said ‘they're at it here as well’. Unfortunately my father got caught at Ballinrobe but not to the same level.
"Ballinrobe has more bookmakers and they spread their bets but it wasn’t hit for the same volume. Limerick has a smaller ring and was done by only one man."
He expanded “there were no doubles laid amongst on-course bookmakers and I suppose the good thing about these men is they played again later on at Limerick, but the horse unseated his rider. In the bumper they backed the (Queally-trained) favourite from 15/8 to 6/4 but it finished second.”
Trainer Declan Queally's yard is run in conjunction with his son and namesake who is himself a capable amateur jockey and is a brother to top flat jockey Tom Queally, who rode Frankel in all of his races.
Both brothers indeed partnered three horses in Barney Curley's famous 2010 4-timer which netted the legendary gambler a £4m payout with Declan's third leg-defeat on Sommersturm failing to net a monster £20m payout.
Concluding his Friday episode, bookmaker McDonnell concedes “you can get a fairly sizeable bet on in the ring with all bookmakers and certain ones will lay bigger. Naturally you are not going to take a bet of that volume from a random person but to a customer, he was more than entitled to have the bet.
"We are welcoming to every customer, I laid one other score (€20) each-way on the Limerick winner so the ring will lay you a very fair, strong bet.
“My father is bookmaking 20 years, I'm at it seven but this was a proper gamble.”
