JP McManus wagers €1.25m on Melbourne Cup hopefuls

Irish billionaire JP McManus has splashed the cash ahead of Tuesday morning’s Melbourne Cup, placing €1.25 million in bets on a selection of runners in Australia’s biggest race.

McManus, the biggest owner in the history of National Hunt racing, is making his first trip to the Melbourne Cup to watch two of his horses – Trustyourinstinct and Goodie Two Shoes – line up in the big race, due off at 4am Irish time.

At a Call of the Card event over the weekend, one of racing’s most famous punters bet over two million Australian dollars on a handful of horses in the race.

They included a monster bet of one million Australian dollars (€627,000) on the English horse Hopewell Rock at 9/1. If the horse wins, McManus will scoop up over €5.6 million.

Betting in conjunction with his friend and fellow owner Paul Byrne, the Limerick businessman was centre stage at an event where bookmakers take bets on the Melbourne Cup in the full glare of the public spotlight.

McManus and Byrne started by backing the 33/1 outsider Soul Of Spain to win two million Australian dollars, and Zakouma at 40/1 and Goodie Two Shoes at 25/1 to win the same.

The 13/1 shot So You Are also attracted the Irishmen’s attention, as did another of Joseph O’Brien’s five runners, James J Braddock at 20/1, before the major punt on Hopewell Rock.

“That was our biggest bet. I thought that was the one we have to fear the most,” McManus told local media. “But we have our chances, they’ve had good preparations. Needless to say, whatever about the money, I’d just love to win the race.”

Goodie Two Shoes was runner-up in last year’s Melbourne Cup, and her owner seems to have taken to Australian racing’s betting scene.

“I certainly enjoyed it,” said McManus. “It’s exciting, I must say. It’s something different, and I think we can learn from it.

“I don’t know if anything like this will ever happen in Britain and Ireland, but it certainly adds to the occasion and it creates a lot of excitement. I only wish they would do it elsewhere.”

The two McManus-owned runners are part of a five-strong Joseph O’Brien-trained team in the 24-runner contest that famously “stops a nation”. O’Brien has won the race twice before, with Rekindling in 2017 and Twilight Payment in 2020.