He hit them with Gay Future as well in Cartmel in 1974.
The horse Gay Future had received some dreadful reviews prior to a race in Cartmel, which made its 15-length win something of a surprise. What its observers didn't know was that the horse they’d originally seen was an imposter.
The real Gay Future was trained to its peak at the stables of Edward O'Grady in Co Tipperary. O'Grady and Future's owner, Tony Murphy, had sent another horse - a rubbish one - to Scotland. On the day of the race small bets were placed on Gay Future in doubles and trebles with two more of Tony Collins’s horses. That pair, Opera Cloak and Anderwyke, were subsequently withdrawn from their respective races, turning the multiple bets into singles.
Before the race, soap was rubbed into Future’s legs to make it look as if he was sweating up, a factor which dissuaded on-track punters, and kept his odds steady at 10/1. When the horse won the protagonists were set to pocket approximately €2million in today’s money. However, the unusual betting patterns were spotted, Murphy was convicted of fraud, fined £1000, and banned from British racecourses for ten years.