***Top 50 Barney Curley trained horses***

Zabeel Dancer
Magic Combination...

Palace not Dancer...

Paparazzi a shokking omission

Maureen

i will never forget one of is horses called "ardbrin".
was a declan murphy masterclass when pulling its head of at nottingham,think it was mid 70s.
would love to see the race again.

Torwada

Bit too early for Declan was the mid 70s.

Late 80s and early 90s was Ardbrins era though.

that was a bit of a guess g2d,funny how you remember certain races.
but not the correct decade.

I can vaguely remember him winning a hurdle at Notts for Tom Tate. Can't remember your race though mucker..

1 Yellow Sam
2 Silvertown
3 Zabeel Palace
4 Magic Combination
5 Paparazzi
6 Maureen
7 Ardbrin
8 Torwada
9....

that won of Aidan O'Brien's wot came down 50lb in handicap and romped home is another shokking omission innit

Me Fein

Assultan must be near the top

Notonebuttwo 2.50 Kelso

Not saying it's the best of his & C. Grants, but it's in the top 1

Ardbrin - Ardheld

magic combination...galway..came home alone.he tried to get 200k on with grahams in the ring.graham wasnt having any of it.they had words!!

christofro

christoforo

1 Yellow Sam
2 Silvertown
3 Zabeel Palace
4 Magic Combination
5 Paparazzi
6 Maureen
7 Ardbrin
8 Torwada
9 Me Fein
10 Assultan
11 Cristoforo
12...

Keep Hope Alive was not a bad horse

Chuck Curley was a favourite of mine

1 Yellow Sam
2 Silvertown
3 Zabeel Palace
4 Magic Combination
5 Paparazzi
6 Maureen
7 Ardbrin
8 Torwada
9 Me Fein
10 Assultan
11 Cristoforo
12 Keep Hope Alive
13 Chuck Curley
14...

OF course Barney being Barney plenty we never new he owned in the DICKINSON ERA

The Tariahs (NAP)

Kalingalinga a Barney special in Galway 2001.

My Man In Dundalk, Shahm, Ndola.

Yellow Sam only ever won one race!

Merire. Absolutely lagged up at Worcester. Also,The Hacienderos.

Bernard Joseph Curley & Patrick (Patsy) Byrne plotted to land the Cesarewitch in 2009 with Sereth, a German import, sourced by Paul Harley (brother of Shaun & Martin), they booked Johnny Murtagh weeks before and backed it e/w from 40/1 to 14/1 ante-post to take out over £2m, it finished 3rd., beaten by Simcock's Gp 3 horse Darley Sun running off 91, useful hurdler Mamlock was 2nd for David (Martin) Pipe.
Barney was a trier and deserves the credit for making the game interesting ....... and made a nice few quid for me along the way.

Another gamble that I was party to was on Threshfield who won 5 times for Barney and was one of his best money spinners.
This time it was on a nice barmy summer's evening at Sandown on 17th July 1991. When I got to the track the chalk jockey for this horse was T D'Arcy (brother of Paul?)claiming 5lb., I saw Barney (who knew me from years before) in the pre-parade paddock and he gave me a knowing nod, dead pan as usual, he never smiled,,,,,,, 10 mins before the race I saw John Reid in his colours weighing out, but the apprentice was still listed on the board. Knowing what I had seen, I quickly went to the ring and backed it for everything I could get on from 10/1 to 9/2 and topped up on the Tote. Threshfield won easily by 2L at 3/1f. and Barney was all smiles for once. It followed up 3 weeks later at Pontefract, ridden by Lester Piggott at 11/10f. With the proceeds of that July night I bought a top of the range Rolex watch (now worth £26k) and a new BMW the next day. A few years later I met him at Brighton races and we spent some time chatting, what was apparent was all the Irish jocks were in awe of him and he was giving them every encouragement ........ a very nice man.

The Hacienderos. Good to see you're still alive Guiness

surely Wayward Lad no. 1?

A few of these probably wouldn't make top 50 based on form/wins alone (but then how many would...?), but from the controversy angle would most likely qualify in the 30-50 range

Mystic Ridge
Faraday
Agapanthus
Sommersturm
Pindar
Elusive Hawk
Tusculum
Sereth
Kalou
Lillebror
Aviso
Shouda
Muskatsturm
The Bonus Ball

To The Top

Kalingalinga was my favourite one of Barney's a nice touch at Galway but so long ago, it's incredible how time flies

KEEP HOPE ALIVE hosed up on debut bumper at Newbury I think backed all rates from 11/2 into 6/4,in those days only amateurs and conditional jockeys were able to ride in bumpers,a Sweeney claiming 7 got steering job,never seen an easier winner, don't know what happened to jockey but the horse followed up next bumper at long odds on,won a nice novice hurdle and was then doped and could not run again
S a side note i can only recall Barney ever running 3 horses I NHF contests in his training career..the aforementioned KEEP HOPE ALIVE, a horse called WOT NO FAX at Huntingdon and 1 more THE BONUS BALL , they all won!