Breeders' Cup | $1.5M bet built new stable

After five jump races spanning 12-5/16 miles and 71 hurdles and fences, Conor Murphy's future hinged on a matter of inches.

But Riverside Theatre nailed the leader at the wire of the Ryanair Chase at England's famed Cheltenham Festival in March of 2012. And the stable lad who four months earlier had invested 50 pounds (about $75) in a five-horse parlay wager — known there an accumulator — suddenly had more than $1.5 million to help him establish his own thoroughbred stable in Kentucky.

Murphy's first purchase was a 4-year-old gelding named Dimension, who on Saturday competes in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint for the second year at Santa Anita, having come in fifth in 2013. The trainer doesn't say what he paid for Dimension, only that it was six figures, and he could not have afforded the horse without winning the bet.

Dimension races under the name of Murphy's Riverside Bloodstock, in honor of the horse who clinched the bet.

"The bet was speculative," Murphy said. "The horse was a big gamble, but he's done brilliant for us and we're lucky to have him. … The bet was hitting the jackpot. But, I think (a Turf Sprint win) would definitely mean more. For the horse to be good enough to run there is great. If he was to win, it would absolutely be a dream come true."

Murphy worked for leading National Hunt trainer Nicky Henderson before coming to the U.S. to work for Irish-born trainers Niall O'Callaghan and David Carroll at Churchill Downs. When Henderson offered him a position as an assistant, Murphy returned to Henderson's Lambourn operation.

Murphy now is stabled at Skylight Training Center in Goshen, Ky., where he and business partner Justin Curran break yearlings, give 2-year-olds their early preparation and train racehorses.

Even before "The Bet," the two friends had begun saving and plotting to go back to Kentucky, with Curran in Dubai at the time.

"Someone like me, who comes from a working family and wouldn't have a lot of money behind me, you could be saving for 20 years back home and have to put everything into the business," Murphy said. "And then it's gone. Whereas here, you can rent two, three, four, five stalls and build it up. The risk is so much greater at home. Not to say it's easy to survive here. But you've got more options."

A week before the races, Murphy reminded Curran of his bet.

"It's one of those things you don't really think can happen," said Curran, who watched Riverside Theatre's race in a bar in Dubai. "I thought he was beaten. He looked beat the whole way and just got up on the line."

Jumpers are even harder to keep sound than their thoroughbred brethren on the flat, because they're bigger, stronger and older. Four months out, it's a long shot that all five horses would make it to the races. Even then, they had to run in the event for which he bet them.

Murphy calculates the odds of hitting were 64,000-1.

"When you make a bet like that you don't expect any return," he said. "The fact that they all got there gave me a fighting chance. Then they all ran the race of their lives."

The payoff would have been more than $5 million, he said, except that the bookmakers cap payoffs at a million pounds.

Watching the final race from work back in Kentucky was Julia Hawley, whom Murphy married this summer. Hawley had followed Murphy to England, but the Ohio product returned to the U.S. and broke off the transatlantic relationship.

Though the couple had started communicating again, she says she didn't know about the accumulator until Murphy told her before the final race.

"It was crazy, really kind of emotional," Julia Murphy said. "I knew about it, obviously, and one horse needed to win for it to come off. We talked afterward and we both were in shock. It didn't sit in for a while, what it really meant.

"He's just a really hard-working man. Any success he's had, he deserves it."

There's a joke in the horse business that goes: How do you make a small fortune in racing? Answer: Start with a large fortune. So $1.5 million doesn't set up a trainer for life.

Still, Murphy said, "It definitely gave me more breathing space to start the business. And it let me take a chance on a horse. If I hadn't won the bet, I wouldn't have bought the horse."

In four starts this year, Dimension has a second in Keeneland's Commonwealth on Polytrack, third in Woodbine's Grade II Play the King and the Kentucky Downs victory.

"He's definitely accomplished what he bought him for," Curran said, "which was to get him to the big day."

Among the outfits for which Murphy and Curran break young horses is Murphy's old boss, Carroll. When Murphy hit The Bet, Carroll's nephew in Ireland called to tell him the news.

"I called him, and he was actually on a horse," Carroll said. "The next day he went to work after making that money. He didn't really celebrate.

"It will never happen again, probably. Five different horses, jumping over the fences. Anything could happen. It's incredible. … But he's a super horseman, terrific guy. I couldn't be happier for him. He's done a great job with Dimension."

Contact Jennie Rees at 502-582-4042. Follow her on Twitter @CJ_Jennie and Facebook.com/CJJennie.