Premier League stars buy racehorse for 'nothing' – then sell it for £1.4m after flying start

Six Premier League team-mates hit the jackpot after buying a horse for ‘nothing’ before flogging it for £1.4million after it flew out of the stalls like an “aeroplane”.

The West Ham players were around £40,000 in profit after selling another racehorse, Hammers Boy for £75,000 – so they decided to reinvest the money.

Teddy Sheringham, Matty Etherington, Carl Fletcher, Danny Gabbidon, Clive Clarke and James Collins spent the cash on another horse, My Boy Charlie.

And it made them a fair bit richer very quickly. Collins said it all happened in the mid-2000s, around the time West Ham were beaten by Liverpool in the FA Cup Final in heartbreaking circumstances.

Speaking on the Undr The Cosh podcast, he said: “We were all probably gambling a little bit at the time, betting on horses. Clive Clarke was there as well… Irish boy – great lad, Clarkey – and he knew Fozzy Stack, who was a horse trainer.

“So because we all liked a punt and all that, we put five grand in each for a horse. There were six of us – me, Teddy, Matty, Karl Fletcher, Danny Gabbidon and I think Clarkey. The six of us and Fozzy the trainer had a bit as well, so we were in for five grand and bought a horse called Hammers Boy. Good horse, done really well.

James Collins

“We sold it for 70 grand, 75 grand maybe. We each took our five grand back and left in what was left – 30, 40 grand – and bought another one. Didn’t know what to call it and Teddy was the only player with a kid at the time who’s Charlie Sheringham, so we called it My Boy Charlie. Teddy sort of named it.”

He added: “This horse came out first race, bang, bang, and it’s an aeroplane. It went on to win Group 2, Group 3. Kieren Fallon ran it. We were away in Austria and we got a phone call off the trainer saying people wanted to buy the horse. We were having a bit of fun with it, but it turned out it was the Irish and the boys in Dubai wanted it.

“We were like, what we talking, Clarkey and Fozzy? What kind of dough you talking? They were like, ‘It’s big…’ We were in for nothing from Hammers Boy. We sold it for £1.4million. Honestly, it was a great horse and we got rid of it – £1.4mill. They put it straight to stud, I think, or ran it a couple of times. It doesn’t always happen like that!”

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