Sensational Betting On Grand National

Northern Advocate, 28 April 1939, Page 11

Sensational Betting On Grand National

On Stradbally shore, a part or Ireland, somebody found a bottle that had been washed up by the sea. Inside the bottle there was a note on which were v/ritten the names of two horses.

One was Squadron Castle, suggested as the likely winner of the Lincolnshire Handicap, and the other. Blue Shirt for the Grand National. The man or woman who put that bottle, with its message, into the sea, could not have foretold one of the most sensational market developments in the history of the Grand National.

The newspapers played up the tips contained in the message from th? bottle. It seems that nearly everybody in Ireland backed Squadron Castle, the majority of them coupling it with Blue 'Shirt; £75,000 on Blue Shirt at 33-1. One Dublin bookmaker had £75,000 going on Blue Shirt. All of this money was on at 33 to 1. Over two millioil pounds to be paid out. Every bookmaker in the leading cities of Ireland had a similar talc to tell.

The between Ireland and the principal cities of England were kept busy. Men were sent to Liverpool to get money on Blue Shirt placed. Never in the history of betting had so much money been bet on one horse. Office bookmakers, big and little, the day after the Lincolnshire Handicap, were flooded with money for Blue Shirt. Their liabilities were enormous. The romantic way in which the tips had come to Ireland found many of them laughing at the idea of either of them winning. Then came the victory of Squadron Castle, and Dublin was in a panic. Maybe the banshee might work its curse on Blue Shirt, many of them felt, and prayed for it to happen. All Because of a Bottle, Men left for Liverpool from Dublin by sea and ain An hour before the Grand National started, the course was flooded with money for Blue Shirt. Bookmakers had never known the like of it before. They, too, had become panic-stricken and the odds came tumbling down. Blue Shirt did not win the Grand National, and the Dublin bookmakers heaved a sigh of relief, though they lost heavily on the Grand National through the victory of Workman, an Irish horse.

In Dublin, when in the presence of bookmakers, they mention bottles jn a whisper. One of the leading racehorse owners of Ireland is Mr Joe McGrath, head of the Irish Sweepstake. He also owns a bottle factory. An unprecedented panic, and all because of a bottle casually thrown into the sea.