The Druid's Lodge confederates and a legendary Newmarket gamble

From 10 to 1, our countdown of the greatest gambles of all time. A new instalment will be published every weekday for the next fortnight. Today – No.2: Hackler's Pride and the 1903 Cambridgeshire

The background

What better place to organise a big gamble than a training base miles from anywhere, with your own private gallops where you can plot with no danger of word getting out?

That was the great attraction of Druid's Lodge, the 40-box yard not far from Stonehenge where the confederates, nicknamed the 'Hermits of Salisbury Plain', hatched plans in the early years of the 20th century.

Secrecy was all. Stable lads were often not told the identity of the horses they rode in work and they were locked up at night to stop their passing on any information.

Hackler's Pride appealed as a horse the confederates could land a gamble with after finishing second at Phoenix Park in June 1902 and she was bought for 1,500gns.

The build-up

Hackler's Pride thrived for a change of scenery and was backed from 100-8 into 9-2 before winning for her new connections at Derby in November 1902.

The following year she finished second over a mile at Hurst Park in June and from that moment she was aimed at the Cambridgeshire. It was a valuable, prestigious contest and, crucially for the gamblers at Druid's Lodge, it was one of the biggest betting races of the year.

She did not win a race beforehand, partly because she was campaigned over inadequate trips, which meant that the three-year-old had second bottom weight among five Druid's Lodge entries for the Newmarket race.

Trainer Jack Fallon said she "had 10lb in hand of the field". Lodge confederate Wilfred Purefoy said: "Not enough. Train her to give us another seven."

And he did. In her last gallop Hackler's Pride gave a 14lb beating to Lady Drake, from whom he would have been receiving 6lb had her stablemates not all been entered in the race as a mere smokescreen.

The gamble took off in the days leading up to the Cambridgeshire and money poured on to the one-time 25-1 short, who was the subject of one bet of £1,000 to win £11,000 – the payout would have been almost £500,000 in today's money.

The race

Crack apprentice Jack Jarvis was given the ride, in order to claim a further 5lb off Hackler's Pride's back.

So confident was Fallon that he took the 15-year-old's whip from him in the parade ring and said: "You won't need that, sonny."

The trainer was right. The filly led at the Bushes and won with any amount in hand.

Jarvis marvelled: "It seemed as if either she was a steam train or her opponents were unable to raise a gallop."

Fallon alone won £32,000, which is over £1.3 million today, and the total payout was estimated at £250,000 (£10.5 million).

The aftermath

Hackler's Pride was no one-hit wonder. In fact, she landed another huge gamble in the Cambridgeshire the very next year.

Once again, she had shown little in her races beforehand yet she was backed into 7-2 favourite and reportedly earned the confederates just as much as she had done 12 months earlier.

That was it for her in handicaps but she won some minor races before finishing second of two in the 1905 Champion Stakes.

Yet Fallon ended up dying penniless while Druid's Lodge shut down in the First World War and did not reopen.

And for all the confederates' reputation for shrewd gambling, when one of them was asked many years later how they had fared overall, he merely said: "We broke even."