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Just watched this on youtube ,surely one of the best winners of the race EVER .Remarkable the way he won pulling clear by at least 8 lths ,well worth a watch .
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Was impressive on the day alright but that's all he did.
They ran him in the first King George where he broke down never to race again.
Was a flop at stud.
He was ridden by a jumps jockey Chuck Spares.
Signal Box who finished third was ridden by the six times Irish jumps champion Martin Molony.
It was Chuck Spares only Derby ride.
Sir Gordon Richards was once again unplaced keeping up his abysmal Derby record,he would break his Derby hoodoo two years later.
Arctic Prince was owned by Joe McGrath,one of Ireland's biggest horse owners,he also owned the Brownstown Stud.
Joe was a veteran of the war of independence,he later managed to get a licence to set up the Irish Sweep.
He backed Arctic Prince with the original William Hill.
William Hill had been a Black and Tan.
This prompted Hill to say whilst handing over a substantial cheque " its a great pity I didnt kill you when I had the chance "
They ran him in the first King George where he broke down never to race again.
Was a flop at stud.
He was ridden by a jumps jockey Chuck Spares.
Signal Box who finished third was ridden by the six times Irish jumps champion Martin Molony.
It was Chuck Spares only Derby ride.
Sir Gordon Richards was once again unplaced keeping up his abysmal Derby record,he would break his Derby hoodoo two years later.
Arctic Prince was owned by Joe McGrath,one of Ireland's biggest horse owners,he also owned the Brownstown Stud.
Joe was a veteran of the war of independence,he later managed to get a licence to set up the Irish Sweep.
He backed Arctic Prince with the original William Hill.
William Hill had been a Black and Tan.
This prompted Hill to say whilst handing over a substantial cheque " its a great pity I didnt kill you when I had the chance "
I looked at the PATHE news of the race which went out in the Cinamas W/R, i enjoyed the lead up to the race as well. 33runners 
Im very impressed by Wildmans memory of the race , 65years ago
Im very impressed by Wildmans memory of the race , 65years ago
Bit later but surely Shergars win is the "best ever".
I was surprised at how small Gordon Richards was,maybe that is the video.
Well done Joe Mc Grath,i,d say a smile lit up his face for the rest of his life thinking about that presentation.
I was surprised at how small Gordon Richards was,maybe that is the video.
Well done Joe Mc Grath,i,d say a smile lit up his face for the rest of his life thinking about that presentation.
Mr Mc Grath was ahead of his time imo. I met Gordon at the sales when it was held in Ballsbridge ,a pure gent , and you are right Pa he was indeed quite small .
I could be wrong but Sir Gordon Richards was the only flat jockey to be Knighted, he was Champion jockey 26times.
Joe McGrath well ahead of his time alright,he was providing this new exchange service of the cash out 80 years ago.
He used to buy back winning Sweep tickets mostly half shares.
Bookies have only recently cottoned on to this buying back of dockets.
It was bad news for gamblers then same as it is now.
He used to buy back winning Sweep tickets mostly half shares.
Bookies have only recently cottoned on to this buying back of dockets.
It was bad news for gamblers then same as it is now.
Correct Frank , Lester was on the verge , but we know what happened then.
This article probably gives an accurate description of the aforementioned Joe McGrath.
He makes the present day bookmakers look like alter boys.
Over the past year or so, I’ve been questioning the motivations of those who claimed to fight for “Irish freedom” a century ago. It seems to me that we have made a complete hash of independence, and it also seems to me that the two parties who slugged it out in the civil war cared little for the ordinary citizen, but were more concerned with personal gain of power and money.
There were many crooks, many cynics, many con-artists, many opportunists, but if anyone exceeded the example of Joe McGrath, I have yet to hear of it.
There was no more spectacular instance of cynicism, dishonesty and avarice than this crook, a former torturer and strike-breaker, who used the war of independence as a springboard to defraud thousands of people around the world, and to drag the good name of Ireland through the mud. After the civil war, McGrath’s Irish Hospital Sweeps became a vehicle for enriching him, his family and his cronies, to the extent that some of his fellow Old IRA men in Ireland, Britain and the USA became obscenely rich. McGrath himself acquired unimaginable wealth, and became one of the most powerful men in Ireland, capable of intimidating government ministers, including the famously irascible Des O Malley.
Showing an early propensity for dishonesty, McGrath orchestrated many bank robberies on behalf of the IRA during the war of independence, keeping a slice of the proceeds for himself. During the civil war, he headed the CID, an intelligence unit responsible for torturing and assassinating political opponents. Later, he was the principal adviser to Siemens-Schuckert, the company which constructed the Ardnacrusha hydro-electric scheme, and which was subsequently defaulted on by the Irish government. McGrath, as adviser, provided the gang of thugs who kept the workers docile as the project proceeded.
The Sweep, as it was popularly known, was a lottery, based on the winning horses in a selection of races. All of my parents’ generation were fixated on the notion of winning the Sweep, a magic solution to all their problems.
The lottery was ostensibly set up to raise funds for Irish hospitals, but was in fact a private company designed to make Joe McGrath and his two bookie accomplices, Richard Duggan and Spencer Freeman, very rich men indeed.
In their first lottery, the three crooks pocketed £46,000 — the equivalent of about €500,000 today, though these things are hard to measure.
Directors of the Sweepstakes were directors of many other Irish companies besides, and the dirty money went on to fund other sizeable Irish operations, including Waterford Crystal and the Glass Bottle Company, which was recently the subject of further controversy. There seems to be no end to the tangle of questionable Irish business interests.
The underlying legislation permitting it was deliberately so full of holes that McGrath and his two cronies paid no tax on their earnings. Furthermore, only about 10% of the money raised ever went to the hospitals, with the rest flowing into the pockets of the former freedom fighters in Ireland and across the world who operated the scam. Despite this, McGrath somehow contrived to have nurses and Gardai drawing winning tickets from the drums, lending a spurious credibility to his fraud.
The motivating factor for those who bought tickets was the staggering size of the prizes, but even that was an illusion. McGrath and his criminal associates set up a system to approach people who had bought potentially winning tickets, in order to buy them back at a fraction of the price. In other words, they offered poor people cash in return for relinquishing their chance to win a fortune. The ticket was never cancelled, of course, and the McGrath operation duly collected the winnings when the horse romped home.
Freeman’s brother, Sidney, was in charge of a parallel operation to scam the system. Based in his office in the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Freeman received details of the horses drawn in Dublin, sent to him by coded telegram. Using this information, he contacted American winners and offered to buy a share in their tickets for a substantial amount. In 1936, Sidney Freeman managed to acquire a half share in eight winning tickets, the profits of which were shared with the directors of the Sweeps.
The real genius lay in realising how desperate the Irish state was for money, much like today. Even though only 10% of the profits went to hospitals, it was still more than the government could afford. Therefore, any minister questioning the scam was vulnerable to pressure, as Des O Malley found out. Whatever his failings, O Malley’s honesty has never been in question. He was a fervent opponent of the Haughey tendency in Fianna Fáil, and in the Seventies, as Minister for Justice, asked for information about the funding of the Sweeps. As Minister, he was responsible for signing an order approving every draw, and he wanted to know more about the money before he signed the next one. The response was immediate pressure on government from members of the McGrath family. Jobs would be lost in the Sweepstakes, O Malley was threatened. Thousands of jobs. Even if O Malley could contemplate it, his cabinet colleagues would not.
It was blackmail of an Irish government minister by a relative of a criminal.
Little did O Malley realise what was happening the thousands of Sweeps tickets. Little did the American authorities realise how they were helping the fraud by impounding ticket stubs as associates of McGrath attempted to smuggle them back to Ireland, or not, as the case may be. Lotteries were illegal in the States, and therefore the US Customs had the authority to seize the Sweepstakes tickets bound for Ireland. This they did, in their thousands, but of course, the money had already been collected in an operation run by fellow patriots, and was on its way back to McGrath, less the substantial slice due to the Stateside contacts — Joseph McGarrity, a former member of the IRB, and Connie Neenan, his fellow-IRA member. Those in the know spoke of one plane so overloaded with sacks of money, it barely managed to take off from JFK
And the people who had paid for the tickets? Simple. The Feds took ’em. Sorry.
Therefore, it made great sense to tip off the authorities about ticket stubs, which McGarrity duly did. Every dollar ticket caught by the US authorities was a dollar in his pocket.
If you ever saw The Sting, you understand the scam.
A great Irish journalist, Joe MacAnthony (grandson of Francesco Marcantonio from Belfast), wrote an article in the Irish Independent, exposing the corruption at the heart of the Hospitals Sweepstakes. As a result, all advertising on the paper was withdrawn for two months. Some time after that, a planned RTÉ programme researched by Charlie Bird was scrapped after pressure was applied to the authority.
They haven’t gone way, you know. You think Fianna Fáil held the power in this country? Think again.
For his trouble, MacAnthony was frozen out of his job, first in the Independent and subsequently in RTÉ. He moved to Canada, reared a family and continues to write stuff annoying the status quo. Three years after arriving there, he wrote an exposé of the Canadian security service. The difference between Ireland and Canada immediately became obvious, with the Canadian authorities launching an investigation, while the Sweeps continued to defraud credulous people all over the world, without interference from the Irish government.
A man with an irrepressible sense of fun, MacAnthony got his own back on the small-minded Sir Tony O Reilly and on McGrath by returning from a gambling trip to Atlantic City with a suitcase full of dollars and instructing his children to roll in the money, which they gleefully did.
McGrath, in the style of all Mob bosses, went on to become a leading racehorse owner, and left a vast fortune to his heirs.
A vast stolen fortune.
______________-
Following in Joe’s footsteps, Damian Corless has published a book called The Greatest Bleeding Heart Racket in the World.
Buy it and read it.
He makes the present day bookmakers look like alter boys.
Over the past year or so, I’ve been questioning the motivations of those who claimed to fight for “Irish freedom” a century ago. It seems to me that we have made a complete hash of independence, and it also seems to me that the two parties who slugged it out in the civil war cared little for the ordinary citizen, but were more concerned with personal gain of power and money.
There were many crooks, many cynics, many con-artists, many opportunists, but if anyone exceeded the example of Joe McGrath, I have yet to hear of it.
There was no more spectacular instance of cynicism, dishonesty and avarice than this crook, a former torturer and strike-breaker, who used the war of independence as a springboard to defraud thousands of people around the world, and to drag the good name of Ireland through the mud. After the civil war, McGrath’s Irish Hospital Sweeps became a vehicle for enriching him, his family and his cronies, to the extent that some of his fellow Old IRA men in Ireland, Britain and the USA became obscenely rich. McGrath himself acquired unimaginable wealth, and became one of the most powerful men in Ireland, capable of intimidating government ministers, including the famously irascible Des O Malley.
Showing an early propensity for dishonesty, McGrath orchestrated many bank robberies on behalf of the IRA during the war of independence, keeping a slice of the proceeds for himself. During the civil war, he headed the CID, an intelligence unit responsible for torturing and assassinating political opponents. Later, he was the principal adviser to Siemens-Schuckert, the company which constructed the Ardnacrusha hydro-electric scheme, and which was subsequently defaulted on by the Irish government. McGrath, as adviser, provided the gang of thugs who kept the workers docile as the project proceeded.
The Sweep, as it was popularly known, was a lottery, based on the winning horses in a selection of races. All of my parents’ generation were fixated on the notion of winning the Sweep, a magic solution to all their problems.
The lottery was ostensibly set up to raise funds for Irish hospitals, but was in fact a private company designed to make Joe McGrath and his two bookie accomplices, Richard Duggan and Spencer Freeman, very rich men indeed.
In their first lottery, the three crooks pocketed £46,000 — the equivalent of about €500,000 today, though these things are hard to measure.
Directors of the Sweepstakes were directors of many other Irish companies besides, and the dirty money went on to fund other sizeable Irish operations, including Waterford Crystal and the Glass Bottle Company, which was recently the subject of further controversy. There seems to be no end to the tangle of questionable Irish business interests.
The underlying legislation permitting it was deliberately so full of holes that McGrath and his two cronies paid no tax on their earnings. Furthermore, only about 10% of the money raised ever went to the hospitals, with the rest flowing into the pockets of the former freedom fighters in Ireland and across the world who operated the scam. Despite this, McGrath somehow contrived to have nurses and Gardai drawing winning tickets from the drums, lending a spurious credibility to his fraud.
The motivating factor for those who bought tickets was the staggering size of the prizes, but even that was an illusion. McGrath and his criminal associates set up a system to approach people who had bought potentially winning tickets, in order to buy them back at a fraction of the price. In other words, they offered poor people cash in return for relinquishing their chance to win a fortune. The ticket was never cancelled, of course, and the McGrath operation duly collected the winnings when the horse romped home.
Freeman’s brother, Sidney, was in charge of a parallel operation to scam the system. Based in his office in the Ritz Carlton Hotel, Freeman received details of the horses drawn in Dublin, sent to him by coded telegram. Using this information, he contacted American winners and offered to buy a share in their tickets for a substantial amount. In 1936, Sidney Freeman managed to acquire a half share in eight winning tickets, the profits of which were shared with the directors of the Sweeps.
The real genius lay in realising how desperate the Irish state was for money, much like today. Even though only 10% of the profits went to hospitals, it was still more than the government could afford. Therefore, any minister questioning the scam was vulnerable to pressure, as Des O Malley found out. Whatever his failings, O Malley’s honesty has never been in question. He was a fervent opponent of the Haughey tendency in Fianna Fáil, and in the Seventies, as Minister for Justice, asked for information about the funding of the Sweeps. As Minister, he was responsible for signing an order approving every draw, and he wanted to know more about the money before he signed the next one. The response was immediate pressure on government from members of the McGrath family. Jobs would be lost in the Sweepstakes, O Malley was threatened. Thousands of jobs. Even if O Malley could contemplate it, his cabinet colleagues would not.
It was blackmail of an Irish government minister by a relative of a criminal.
Little did O Malley realise what was happening the thousands of Sweeps tickets. Little did the American authorities realise how they were helping the fraud by impounding ticket stubs as associates of McGrath attempted to smuggle them back to Ireland, or not, as the case may be. Lotteries were illegal in the States, and therefore the US Customs had the authority to seize the Sweepstakes tickets bound for Ireland. This they did, in their thousands, but of course, the money had already been collected in an operation run by fellow patriots, and was on its way back to McGrath, less the substantial slice due to the Stateside contacts — Joseph McGarrity, a former member of the IRB, and Connie Neenan, his fellow-IRA member. Those in the know spoke of one plane so overloaded with sacks of money, it barely managed to take off from JFK
And the people who had paid for the tickets? Simple. The Feds took ’em. Sorry.
Therefore, it made great sense to tip off the authorities about ticket stubs, which McGarrity duly did. Every dollar ticket caught by the US authorities was a dollar in his pocket.
If you ever saw The Sting, you understand the scam.
A great Irish journalist, Joe MacAnthony (grandson of Francesco Marcantonio from Belfast), wrote an article in the Irish Independent, exposing the corruption at the heart of the Hospitals Sweepstakes. As a result, all advertising on the paper was withdrawn for two months. Some time after that, a planned RTÉ programme researched by Charlie Bird was scrapped after pressure was applied to the authority.
They haven’t gone way, you know. You think Fianna Fáil held the power in this country? Think again.
For his trouble, MacAnthony was frozen out of his job, first in the Independent and subsequently in RTÉ. He moved to Canada, reared a family and continues to write stuff annoying the status quo. Three years after arriving there, he wrote an exposé of the Canadian security service. The difference between Ireland and Canada immediately became obvious, with the Canadian authorities launching an investigation, while the Sweeps continued to defraud credulous people all over the world, without interference from the Irish government.
A man with an irrepressible sense of fun, MacAnthony got his own back on the small-minded Sir Tony O Reilly and on McGrath by returning from a gambling trip to Atlantic City with a suitcase full of dollars and instructing his children to roll in the money, which they gleefully did.
McGrath, in the style of all Mob bosses, went on to become a leading racehorse owner, and left a vast fortune to his heirs.
A vast stolen fortune.
______________-
Following in Joe’s footsteps, Damian Corless has published a book called The Greatest Bleeding Heart Racket in the World.
Buy it and read it.
Am I correct in thinking that Joe McGrath was a brother of trainer Seamus McGrath
Joe McGrath was a racing enthusiast.
His eldest son was Seamus who he set up as a trainer in Glencairn ( Boss Crokers old stable ) where he sent out loads of winners in the familiar green with red piping colours that Arctic Prince carried
The horses generally ran in Seamus McGraths name but his brothers Joe and Paddy were part owners.
Joe ran the Brownstown Stud.
Paddy ran the Sweep and all their other companies,he was a real racing enthusiast and was Chairman of the Racing Board for years,he organised the purchase of Leopardstown at favourable terms,he was great for Irish racing.
Levmoss would probably be their most famous horse,he won the Ascot Gold Cup and amazingly won the Prix De LArc later that year.
Le Levenstall,Weavers Hall,Furry Glen and Ballad Rock other greats.
The McGraths also bought Nasrullah a very temperamental horse to stand at the Brownstown Stud.
He was a phenomenal success,although they cashed in too early by selling Nasrullah to America where he thrived,he's in nearly all the lines now.
His eldest son was Seamus who he set up as a trainer in Glencairn ( Boss Crokers old stable ) where he sent out loads of winners in the familiar green with red piping colours that Arctic Prince carried
The horses generally ran in Seamus McGraths name but his brothers Joe and Paddy were part owners.
Joe ran the Brownstown Stud.
Paddy ran the Sweep and all their other companies,he was a real racing enthusiast and was Chairman of the Racing Board for years,he organised the purchase of Leopardstown at favourable terms,he was great for Irish racing.
Levmoss would probably be their most famous horse,he won the Ascot Gold Cup and amazingly won the Prix De LArc later that year.
Le Levenstall,Weavers Hall,Furry Glen and Ballad Rock other greats.
The McGraths also bought Nasrullah a very temperamental horse to stand at the Brownstown Stud.
He was a phenomenal success,although they cashed in too early by selling Nasrullah to America where he thrived,he's in nearly all the lines now.
Its unlikely that a horse will win the Ascot gold cup and the Arc again in the same year, Park top was a strong fav to win the Arc that year but Australian Bill Williamson stole the race from the front on Levmoss, there was a couple of irish and english Derby winners in the field as well.Levmoss started around 50/1 .
Funnily enough a horse that came from the McGrath breeding operation nearly emulated the Levmoss achievement.
Ardross started his career in Ireland but blossomed when he joined Henry Cecil,he won all the Cup races including two Ascot Gold Cups.
His final race was in the Prix De LArc where he was beaten in a photo,carried the Charles St George colours of Black with a white chevron.
Ardross started his career in Ireland but blossomed when he joined Henry Cecil,he won all the Cup races including two Ascot Gold Cups.
His final race was in the Prix De LArc where he was beaten in a photo,carried the Charles St George colours of Black with a white chevron.
WMB I remember Ardross racing in Ireland. Maybe Seamus Quirke was the trainer or Kevin P?
I saw Le levenstall get beaten odds on at Bellewstown and win the Irish Leger later in the year. Bellewstown used only race midweek 2 days a year late June early July and they also had a steeplechase course back then
I saw Le levenstall get beaten odds on at Bellewstown and win the Irish Leger later in the year. Bellewstown used only race midweek 2 days a year late June early July and they also had a steeplechase course back then
Sorry it was a son of Le Levenstall that got beaten at Bellewstown in 1970 Allangrange went on to win the Leger
Levmoss won a h/cap under 10st in midweek at the Curragh, before going on to win the Arc the following Sun.
You tube have a number of Ardross races . worth a look to see this great stayer in action.
Gordon Lord Byron got beaten in a maiden at Bellewstown.
The McGraths came up with this novel way of selling their foals at Goffs around that time.
They sent the horses in in pairs,ye bid away and took your pick,they retained the one rejected.
Le Moss was sold that way as was Ardross the unusual thing about it was the buyers got it right every time,McGath generally got left with the dud.
The McGraths came up with this novel way of selling their foals at Goffs around that time.
They sent the horses in in pairs,ye bid away and took your pick,they retained the one rejected.
Le Moss was sold that way as was Ardross the unusual thing about it was the buyers got it right every time,McGath generally got left with the dud.
Paddy McGrath was involved with Goffs at the time.
It was a novel way of selling horses and generated huge interest,the fact the buyers were so successful at picking the better one caused it to peter out.
It was a novel way of selling horses and generated huge interest,the fact the buyers were so successful at picking the better one caused it to peter out.
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