By Paddy Clancy

A PUNTER banned for winning too much during the Cheltenham horse racing festival last week has said he is plotting a revenge gambling coup against the bookie who refused his bets.

Trawler skipper Coly O’Shea, who once scooped a fortune on the Irish National Lottery, collected almost $37,000 in the first two days of the Cheltenham festival.

Up to 25,000 Irish folk travel to the annual festival, the most prestigious battle in jump racing between Irish-trained and English-trained horses.

Tens of thousands more take the week off work back in Ireland to concentrate on the biggest betting spree of the year.

After clinching his $37,000, O’Shea, from Killybegs, Co. Donegal, received a phone call from local bookie JP McGuinness, canceling his account on the third day of the four-day festival.

Kerry-born O’Shea, 53, skipper of the fishing trawler India Rose, said, “He told me his staff wouldn’t be accepting any more bets from me. He said, ‘You are going to put me out of business.’”

Four winning “bankers” in the first two days launched O’Shea on his winning streak.

He started off with a ¤130 each way double on the first day on Heads to the Ground at 3/1 and Gaspara at 13/2. Both horses won and he scooped almost $4,700.

Next day Burntoakboy at 11/1 and Cork All Star at 7/1 were his winning bankers and pushed the takings above $37,000.

An “each way” bet means collecting at full odds if the horse wins and at reduced odds if it is placed up to 4th depending on the total number of runners. When the animal wins the punter collects both the win and place odds.

O’Shea’s bets on the third day were losers but it was a rival bookie that benefited.

But his luck returned for the Gold Cup after Cheltenham he was still on a winning streak, scooping another $4,000 over the weekend.

He said, “In six days of betting there was only one day I didn’t show a profit.”

O’Shea hit the lottery jackpot in 1990.

Bookie McGuinness has refused to comment on the ban on his punter. But a spokesman for the Irish National Bookmakers’ Association said a bookie is lawfully entitled to refuse a bet without explanation at any time.