LOGLINE
IRELAND, 1975 — Facing financial ruin, reclusive horse trainer and professional gambler Barney Curley recruits a motley crew of townspeople to execute an elaborate nationwide betting coup on a long-shot horse, putting his system — and his lifelong conviction that he can trust no one — to the ultimate test.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
Format: Feature
Length: 128 Pages
Genre: Historical Comedy-Drama / Heist
Length: 128 Pages
Genre: Historical Comedy-Drama / Heist
Adapted from Nick Townsend’s book The Sure Thing, the screenplay tells the remarkable true story of Irish gambler Barney Curley and his audacious 1975 Yellow Sam betting coup. I developed the adaptation in collaboration with a production company that held the rights to the book, drawing on Townsend’s account to bring this largely forgotten story to the screen. Beyond the elaborate mechanics of one of the biggest betting coups in British and Irish racing history, what interested me most was the character of Curley himself: a fiercely independent, deeply distrustful man whose greatest gamble requires him to put his faith in other people.