Thursday Market Move – 9th February 2017

There has been significant support on four runners in the UK today and people will be looking at a six-figure payout if it lands and they got on at early prices. Could Barney Curley be behind the gamble? It’s extremely unlikely as he is the ultimate professional when it comes to a gamble and his secret would not have gone viral the night before around social media. If they all do win it will be a surprise but it is very interesting nonetheless.

3.10pm Lingfield – Giant Sequoia

Formerly trained by Barney Curley (alarm bells) and now trained by Des Donovan who has landed a few gambles himself, this horse has been backed from a high of 16/1 into 15/8. A winner of six races on the all weather between 1m2f and 1m5f, he looks well treated and must be considered if anywhere near his best.

4.30pm Huntingdon – My Boy Geoffrey

As big as 50/1 last night, this six year old mare is trained by John Butler who had a winner on the all-weather yesterday. She only has the one run under her belt and we know very little about here but she is now as short as 7/2 in places so serious money has been placed.

4.50pm Lingfield – Genuine Approval

Big gamble on this horse who is now as short as 4/1 in the market after being as high as 33/1 last night. The John Butler trained four year old is a course and distance winner and runs off a decent mark here but it is an apprentice race so a lot of trust will be placed in the jockey Miss Alice Haynes.

8.00pm Chelmsford – Menelik

Another horse trained by Des Donovan and this horse arrives here in decent nick, finishing a good third last time out. He has been backed into favourite from being as high as 7/1 last night. Can all four win? Probably not, it’s a huge ask but time will tell!

John Butler on the gamble “I hope both of my horses run well for their owners.”

Michael Shinners of SkyBet said “There does tend to be a certain paranoia when it comes to these gambles and people may have latched onto an online posting last night regarding the horses. Subsequently these horses have been supported from big prices and if they were to all win it would take out a fairly significant amount of money – we’d be looking at paying out over £200,000 but nowhere near £500,000. For a bog standard Thursday, it would be significant money for the horses but very few people have placed multiples at big prices as we managed to flag it up early on as we had to be cautious due to the size of the prices. It will be interesting to see how the betting changes for the other horses after Giant Sequoia has ran. The bumper horse My Boy Geoffrey, who has been the best backed, could go off odds on or 50-1, depending on how the first horse fares.”

Paddy Power said “We might be up to our knickers in this, but I don’t believe it’s Barney Curley inspired, if it was we probably wouldn’t even know about it yet! It’s all over social media and lots of punters are jumping on the bandwagon and adding to the gamble.”