'This is the biggest bet he's ever told me to have on one of his' - Harry Findlay profits from Paul Byrne-owned Slate Lane

Harry Findlay made a profitable trip to Newton Abbot after heeding owner Paul Byrne's advice to have a substantial bet on Slate Lane in the feature 3m2½f handicap hurdle.

The five-year-old had shown little in three starts for Paul Hennessy but made a successful stable debut for Emmet Mullins at Cartmel before following up at Bangor last month.

Findlay, a professional punter who owned 2008 Gold Cup hero Denman with Paul Barber, was told by Byrne that Slate Lane was "a certainty" to complete the hat-trick and the 1-2 shot duly obliged under Richie McLernon.

"I live just up the road," Findlay told Sky Sports Racing before Slate Lane's success. "It was Julian Snow who noticed that Paul Byrne had a runner here today, so straight away I asked him will it win and he said, 'It's a certainty'.

"This is the biggest bet he's ever told me to have on one of his.

"This is the only bet of the day and I've always said when there's only one big bet all day and it's a juicy bet then it's a great buzz, so why not come down and watch? All the punters are on, half at 4-6, half at 8-13 and I would be taking 4-7."

Slate Lane: completed a hat-trick at Newton Abbot on MondayCredit: JOHN GROSSICK

Byrne and Mullins have become a powerful combination in recent years with The Shunter landing a £100,000 bonus for following up his Morebattle Hurdle win at Kelso in the Plate at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival.

The Shunter was sold to JP McManus, while Mullins' stable star Noble Yeats was sold privately by Byrne to Robert Waley-Cohen just two months before his Grand National success last year.

Byrne sold other promising runners to McManus last season including Filey Bay, who was placed in the Betfair Hurdle and County Hurdle, and Grade 2 winner Corbetts Cross, who ran out at the last when in contention in the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle on his first start in McManus's green and gold silks.

Mullins would go on to saddle his first Grade 1 winner shortly after with the Byrne-owned Feronily at Punchestown.

Explaining his connection with Byrne, Findlay, said: "Paul is a shareholder at Lifford greyhound track, our supporter and sponsor. I was good friends with Paul's father, he was a great man, Davy Byrne.

"Paul's a modest fella. Everyone asks how good he is at buying the horses and when you try and tell him he's a genius he's the first to deflect a lot of the skill onto Emmet."

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