BARNEY Curley, one of racing's most colourful characters for the past 50 years, died on Sunday, aged 81.

Born in Fermanagh in 1939, he came from a family of modest means and his father was a gambler. Curley himself was a unsuccessful punter and bookmaker in his youth before changing his ways and training to become a Jesuit priest.

After abandoning that career path, he tried his hand as a pub owner and managing musical acts before dabbling in racehorse ownership.

He first made headlines in racing in 1975 when he orchestrated a huge betting coup on his own horse, Yellow Sam, at Bellewstown.

Curley used his winnings to buy more horses and Middleton Park House in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, a property he would later dispose of by running an illegal raffle.

He trained for one season (1984) from Mullingar before moving to Britain. For the next 25 years he was the scourge of bookmakers, who feared putting a price next to one of his runners in case a plunge was imminent.

Training mostly low-grade horses, Curley became notorious for landing gambles. His ability to 'put one over' on the bookmakers was widely admired, though he also had plenty of critics who felt his methods were bad for racing's image.

His biggest winner, in terms of prize money, was Magic Combination, who won the Imperial Cup at Sandown in 2000.

Curley and his wife Maureen were dealt a huge personal blow in 1995 when their teenage son Charles died in a road accident. Soon afterwards Curley set up the charity Direct Aid For Africa (DAFA) and increasingly devoted his time to that project.

Centred in Zambia, DAFA has funded the construction and running of numerous schools and hospitals. Many racing figures have supported the charity, including Sheikh Mohammed, who once donated £2.5 million.

In 2015 Curley received the ‘Human Life, Human Rights and Human Dignity Award’ presented by the Oireachtas Human Dignity Group for his charity work.

At that time, Sean Barrett TD said: “Barney Curley is in many ways an unlikely hero. Not many gamblers get nominated for awards. But here is a man who is transforming countless lives through tireless fundraising for some of the world’s most underprivileged people. That deserves to be celebrated and honoured.”

Among Curley's closest friends in racing were jockeys Frankie Dettori, Jamie Spencer, Tom Queally and Shane Kelly, all of whom were grateful to Curley for guidance during difficult times in their personal or professional lives.

Newmarket-based John Butler was assistant to Curley for a number of years and paid tribute to his former boss, who had battled against cancer.

“He died very peacefully on the stud (in Newmarket) on Sunday. It was pretty sudden, he got poorly very quickly,” he said.

“I came over to England (from Ireland) 18 to 20 years ago and worked for him for seven or eight years. It’s a sad day.

“His charity was his main thing the last 10 or 15 years, it was always the charity no matter what. Every day it was his charity. On several occasions we emptied furniture out of schools and filled containers and he always went away and the charity came first. The horses were there, but the charity was a massive thing.

“You could spend all night talking about him. He was very good to me, he was just one of those people.

“He was good to Spencer and (Tom) Queally and Shane Kelly, Frankie – I think Frankie went to see him every day for the last two or three weeks.”

Adding his tribute, multiple champion National Hunt jockey A.P. McCoy wrote on Twitter: “Very sad to hear that Barney Curley has passed away. Feel lucky to have enjoyed his company – a man with well-founded legendary status as a trainer/gambler, but one who also raised lots for the charity Direct Aid For Africa. RIP.”