Yellow Sam is still winning races in Australia!

IT is 50 years since the late Barney Curley landed a famous gamble at Bellewstown with Yellow Sam.

The story of how Barney tied up the racecourse phonebox so that the betting shops could not shorten the price at the track has gone down in legend and the yarn now has a new audience in Australia thanks in part to Shane Jackson, the Wicklow man who emigrated down under about 15 years ago. Shane quickly became a top jump jockey in Australia and is now a successful trainer there.

Shane is married to Lauren Gault, from a well-known racing family in Northern Ireland. Lauren’s dad John owns a share in one of Shane’s horses and named it Yellow Sam, a nod to Barney.

The Australian version of Yellow Sam is a five-year-old filly and she’s already won A$500,000. She’s not actually trained by Shane Jackson but by Lindsey Smith, with whom Shane learned his trade. Shane was Lindsey’s yard foreman at the time when the filly’s majority owner Chris Wells recommended to Shane that his father-in-law take a share and allowed John to name her.

Chris told Racing Victoria: “A lot of people think it’s a male horse but we’ve grown to like the name.

“I told Shane he should buy into her because she was a really nice filly, and he passed his share onto his wife Lauren’s father. John loves his racing and the Yellow Sam Story was one of his favourites, so that’s how the slightly unusual name came about and we were happy to go with it.

“We only paid 10 grand for her at the sales but she was really well-balanced, and even though she was on the small side and her pedigree is obviously nothing to write home about, we were very happy to take a chance on her at that price.

“Lindsey has got a great eye for a horse and he’s got an amazing ability to spot any physical faults which others might miss. But he couldn’t see anything wrong with the filly, so we were very happy to buy her.

“She always tries her hardest and it’s quite rare to see horses go past her when she gets her head in front, which is a great attribute,” said Wells.

Barney would surely be pleased.