The 26-year-old trainer Frances Crowley, who qualified from UCD with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, had the bookmakers scrambling for their calculators after Moscow Express won a thrilling Galway Plate yesterday.
A general feel-good factor was helped by spectacular sunshine but not half as much as a massive public gamble on Moscow Express in the £65,000 festival feature.
Some quotes of 9/1 had been snapped up in the morning but even the 7/1 that opened at the track was snapped up and Moscow Express ended up the 4/1 second favourite.
The 19-year-old champion jockey Ruby Walsh may have been riding in his first Galway Plate but he forced Moscow Express home a length clear of the J.P. McManus-owned Lucky Town, with Nicholls Cross third.
"We've lost almost £50,000 on the race so just start multiplying what has been taken out of the betting ring in total. I'd say at least half a million pounds," said bookmaker Willie Power.
"An absolute disaster," confirmed Brian Graham of the Sean Graham organisation. "The professionals backed the favourite Lanturn but the public really got stuck into Moscow Express."
Ms Crowley, who also trained Colm's Rock to finish fifth, is only the second woman to train a Galway Plate winner but she could hardly bear to watch the finish.
"I hardly watched it and at the finish I nearly fainted. I'm trying to compose myself now," said the Piltown, Co Kilkenny trainer.
Moscow Express is owned by John Corr from Ballyclare in Co Antrim. Nicky Kelly may not have won the Plate but he did own the winner of the following race, Nordic Isle. The independent Arklow district councillor was in happy form in the winners' enclosure and said: "Half of Co Wicklow will have done very well out of the horse today - but it's Galway tonight!
"I've always been interested in racing and was involved in a few jumping horses before. But Nordic Isle is both viable and capable. Jim Bolger [trainer] told us he would run very well at Galway."
Mr Kelly was not the only politician to sample the delights of Ballybrit. The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, was also there to experience the tax-free betting atmosphere which his legislation created just in time for the festival.
The figures again suggested it is working, with the 25,000 crowd betting a colossal £1,699,398 with the bookmakers and an all-time record of £749,588 being wagered with the Tote.
