Black Tuesday 2015

Black Tuesday was a horse racing disaster which took place during the Cheltenham festival on Tuesday, March 10, 2015. It is noted for first exposing the murky underworld of gambling, depravity and deceit in Carrigstown and has been the source of multiple subsequent legal investigations.

Black Tuesday
At 9:06 a.m., Carol Foley opens the doors to her betting shop, letting in several local Carrigstown punters including Ray O'Connell, Mondo O'Connell, Cass Cassidy, Wayne Molloy and Oisin Brennan.

At 9.12 a.m., Cass Cassidy places a Lucky 63 with a total stake of 4 EUR.

Between 9.32 a.m - 10.40 a.m., Oisin Brennan places a total of 144 separate bets combining 12 different horses in many different permutations, accounting for a total stake of 15,614 EUR.

Paul Brennan enters the Carrigstown betting shop at 10.47 a.m. and places a four-fold bet with a stake of 100,000 EUR. The bet was accepted by part-time worker Sash Bishop.

At 11.13 a.m, Carol Foley sends the first email to Robbie Quinn expressing a concern that she had exposed her bookies to excess risk that morning and had an urgent requirement to lay off some of this exposure.

At 1.30 p.m, the first race of the day, The SkyBet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle commences. Local favourite Douvan wins this race at 1.37 p.m, much to the delight of punters.

Another local favourite Un De Sceaux wins the second race of the day at 2.14 p.m.

Between 2.17 p.m and 2.35 p.m, 17 emails are furiously exchanged between Carol Foley and Robbie Quinn in which Carol mentions concerns about the day's results and in particular her liability to the betting activities of Paul Brennan and Oisin Brennan.

The fourth race of the day sees yet another favourite Faugheen take the spoils at 3.29 p.m. Paul Brennan had successfully had the first 3 legs of his four-fold win and stands to win 1.8 million EUR upon the highly likely final leg winning. The same final leg, Annie Power winning the 4.00pm OLBG Mares' Hurdle, is worth 1.1 million EUR to Oisin Brennan.

At 3.30 p.m, Carol Foley storms into the backroom of her betting shop, pushing and injuring Cass Cassidy in the process, who is attempting to cash-out his Lucky 63 bet for 14.70 EUR. Carol contacts loan shark Cathal Spillane at 3.32 p.m in a bid to secure a loan in the event that Annie Power would prove to be the victor. Carol logs into her Full Tilt Poker account at 3.34 p.m. and places 4 more phone calls; once to corrupt accountant Dermot Fahy to arrange her monthly accounts and 3 times to local hit-man Decco Bishop. In between calls, Carol furiously engages in multiple hands of nosebleed high-stakes poker action. Between 3.40 - 3.47 p.m. alone, Carol tilts off in the region of 60,000 EUR.

Just before the beginning of The OLBG Mares' Hurdle, at 3.58 p.m, Paul Brennan successfully places a phone call to the office phone of Carol Foley in which he taunts and goads a distressed and dazed Foley, who at this point is beginning to drink copious amounts of alcohol.

The race begins at 4.01 p.m. as punters around Carrigtown who have gathered in McCoy's watch on hopeful of another triumph. Mondo O'Connell and Ray O'Connell can be seen celebrating with Wayne Molloy in McCoy's pub at 4.08 p.m. as Annie Power advances into the home stretch unopposed and almost certain of victory.

At 4.09 p.m. leaping the final hurdle under the reigns of Ruby Walsh, Annie Power crashes and falls on landing.

Aftermath
Wayne Molloy, who had missed the initial victories of the day, was persuaded by Oisin Brennan to put a large sum of money on Annie Power. Eager not to miss out on the spoils, Wayne emptied the credit union of his mother, Dolores Molloy, in order to place a 10000 EUR each way bet on the horse. Wayne was subsequently found out and received a hiding from his step-dad Pete Ferguson.