Former owner and trainer Noel Furlong (left)© Photo Healy Racing
Curragh-based businessman and legendary gambler Noel Furlong has died at the age of 83.
The founder of Furlong Carpets and Flooring lived a colourful life and will be best remembered in racing circles for the massive gambles on horses he owned in the early 1990s.
Furlong, born in inner-city Dublin, rocked the betting world in 1991 with an audacious gamble on two horses he owned running at the Cheltenham Festival, Destriero and The Illiad.
Furlong had landed a huge punt on The Illiad in that season's Ladbroke Hurdle at Leopardstown and played up the winnings by backing both horses to win on the opening day at Cheltenham.
Destriero won the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham reportedly netting Furlong in excess of £1 million but The Illiad fell in the Champion Hurdle saving the bookmakers huge losses.
Noel Furlong was also a formidable poker player and won the main event at the 1999 World Series Of Poker. He was also a two-time winner of the Irish Poker Open.
His final winner on the track was Aztec Eagle trained by his neighbour Dermot Weld which won at Cork on 5th May 2018.
May he rest in peace.
