Dennis O'Kelly
The Irish Dennis O'Kelly (* 1728 ? † 1787 ) is one of the most colorful characters in the history of gallop racing and the breeding of English thoroughbred horses .
At the age of 20 he did better than bad in London . At times he was in the Fleet Prison because of debts and performed waiter services for his fellow inmates. The love affair with a well-known London lady, Charlotte Hayes , brought him some money, with which he acquired the officer license of lieutenant-colonel in the Westminster regiment of the county of Middlesex and thus the first social respectability.
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He became famous as a fearless gambler and bettor . So he bet on May 29, 1769 in Ascot that he could name all the horses in a race in the correct order of their arrival at the finish. It was the second race of the then almost unknown Eclipse and he bet "Eclipse first, the rest nowhere" , by which he meant that Eclipse will win the race, but all other competitors had not yet reached the distance post when the Eclipse crossed the finish line (approx . 240 yards from the destination) and thus as »nowhere« = »further ran«. According to the rules of the time, the exact order of the finish was irrelevant ( heats ).
Eclipse won the race as overwhelmingly as O'Kelly predicted - as did all of his later 16 races. After this Ascot race, O'Kelly bought half of the Eclipse and later bought it all for a total of 1,750 guineas. In the following racing career, O'Kelly could almost no longer achieve betting profits with Eclipse, because hardly anyone wanted to bet against Eclipse. As a racing and breeding horse, Eclipse earned around £ 25,000 for O'Kelly, a few million euros based on today's monetary value. With this income, and later with some other popular stallions, the upstart O'Kelly was able to enjoy the splendid lifestyle of a gentleman .
O'Kelly died two years before Eclipse, which laid the financial foundation for his prosperity.
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | O'Kelly, Dennis |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Irish horse breeder |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1728 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1787 |