The Barrister Who Quit Law To Handicap Racehorses

What kind of person leaves the Law Library… and ends up becoming one of the most quietly powerful men in Irish racing?

Gary O’Gorman, that’s who.

ON Episode 142 of The Fifth Court, Peter Leonard BL and Mark Tottenham BL meet the former barrister who swapped devilling and district courts for parade rings, pedigrees, handicap marks and the dark arts of Irish flat racing.

This is law with a glorious smell of turf, horse sweat and mild institutional mischief.

Gary explains:

• how he went from Trinity, King’s Inns and the Law Library into racing
• what a handicapper actually does
• how trainers try to outfox the system
• why only one horse can win, but 11 people can still blame the handicapper
• how Ireland became a global bloodstock superpower
• why racehorses, judges, barristers and forum shopping all belong in the same conversation
• 
  

There is also talk of Phoenix Park Racecourse, Cheltenham, black type, appeals, legal gossip, and the delicious reality that in racing, some people are scandalised by a coup while secretly admiring it.

This is not one of your solemn legal episodes.

This is The Fifth Court going full gallop.

Decisis

The Decisis case notes on this week’s episode are supported by Charlton Solicitors and Collaborative Practitioners, George’s Street, Dún Laoghaire.

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