Book of the week: The Sure Thing by Nick Townsend

The Sure Thing by Nick Townsend (Century)

Bookmakers like multiple bets. They regard them as the province of the mug punter, and on the rare occasion that someone wins big they milk the publicity while counting the many millions lost by those less fortunate.

So when on 10 May 2010 a small army of men, marshalled with military precision, toured betting shops and placed thousands of trebles and yankees (a four-horse bet, combining doubles, trebles and an accumulator) on seemingly average horses at stakes low enough not to sound any alarm bells, the bookies were slow to react. In the event only three of the four horses won, but the audacious – and entirely legal – coup still netted £3.9 million. (If all four had triumphed, the take would have been around £15m.)

Nick Townsend tells the story with panache, helped by a close acquaintance with the Irish mastermind of the scheme, Barney Curley, a name which bookmakers have had reason to curse on several occasions.

Curley is a complex character: a deeply religious man who has founded a charity to build schools in Africa, he was also variously a smuggler, showband manager and publican before becoming a professional gambler.

Those who have read Curley’s autobiography, ghosted by Townsend, can skip much of the first half of this book. It gets properly into its stride when it focuses on the coup, which in its innovative daring calls to mind The Italian Job. After that triumph Curley, now 74, seemed content to wind down, saying to Townsend last year: “People ask me, would you try it again? No. No chance.”

To his credit, Townsend wasn’t convinced, which is just as well, because a month ago a remarkably similar operation, all four horses winning this time, cost the bookies another £2m or so. Was that Curley’s final flourish? Don’t bet on it.

Published in hardback by Century, £20