BHA looks back at prior races of the four horses involved in £2m Barney Curley-inspired betting coup However, it turned out to be the moment when the bookmakers began recouping their losses as Pipers Piping was unplaced and, ironically, the race went to his stablemate Prohibition at 16-1. Although estimates of the exact figure landed in Wednesday's gamble varied between £2 million and £15 million, most bookmakers seemed to concur with the lower figure. Ladbrokes described £2 million as "credible" while Coral agreed. "If everyone got hit equally hard that sounds about right," Coral's Simon Clare said. Betfred, who withheld a payout of £823,000 to Curley for 21 months after a similar coup in May 2010, did not believe they were specifically targeted this time. "The bookmakers [Paddy Power, Bet365]) who got hit hardest were those who price up those races overnight," explained their spokesman Andrew Griffiths. We don't price those races up until 8.30am and our traders had already flagged up the connections. It was a bad day but we felt like we got away with it. We had some interesting new accounts opened from deepest, darkest Ireland in the build up to this but you've got to take your hat off to them.