There was a small bit of roguery

Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this RTE podcast about a great greyhound gamble centred on Mullingar dog track in 1978. It's described as a 'coup', which is not entirely accurate as ultimately it failed.

It's wonderful charming story, really well told with interviews with the surviving organisers.

The basic plot was to have an off course gamble at bookies across the whole of Ireland at tote odds on the classy stayer Ballydonnell Sam, while at the same time ensuring noone could bet on the favourite on the tote on track.

There were 5 Tote windows at Mullingar and the team blocked these for the 15 minutes prior to the race by having really slow, complicated bets on all kinds of combinations other than the favourite, and making 'mistakes' so bets had to be cancelled and reissued.

Ultimately they were so successful that only one bet at 1punt was placed on the Tote for Ballydonnell Sam, but it was this 'success' that proved to be the organisers' downfall. The dog did his bit, winning after taking up the running in the home straight. His starting price was 1/2 but the Tote return was over 900/1!

The bookies cried fowl and, with the odd independent exception refused to pay, (probably justifiably to be honest). The Garda were called in to investigate a possible fraud, but the detective assigned concluded that although "there was a small bit of roguery" (brilliant phrase) no crime had been committed.

It was obvious from the podcast that although they never got their money, the organisers now look back with deserved pride on so nearly pulling it off - and maybe if the Tote return had been much lower they would have.

Greyhound racing is steeped in the culture of rural Ireland in particular. The coursing final at Clonmel is full of characters just like the ones featured in the podcast and I hope us English can go back next year.