Weird World

Paddy Power recreate Putin meme for Cheltenham stunt

James. Updated March 13th, 2017

Londoners were left stunned this morning after Presidents’ Putin and Trump, appeared to arrive in the capital on horseback, ahead of the biggest week in the horse racing calendar.

Bookmaker Paddy Power recreated a famous photo of Putin taken in 2009, which saw the Russian President riding shirtless in Siberia’s Tuva region.

The image went viral and has become one of the internet’s most shared memes. 

Pictures uploaded by the bookmaker see the actors in locations across the Capital including Parliament Square, Westminster Bridge, parks and various tourist hotspots.

Turnover on political betting industry-wide is expected to top £10m in 2017 but that figure is dwarfed by the £800m expected to be bet across the industry during Cheltenham week – making it the busiest betting event in the calendar.

Paddy Power are offering punters who know their horses from their executive orders the chance to bet on Cheltenham-Politics specials including; Willie Mullins to be Top Trainer and Trump to serve a 2nd Term (7/2), Ruby Walsh to be Top Jockey and Trump to be impeached in 2017 (8/1), and Neon Wolf to win the Novices Hurdle and Sean Spicer to be sacked in 2017 (20/1).

Actors Karl Greenwood and Doug Devaney spent more than six hours being made up with prosthetics by a team of special effect artists.

Paddy Power said: “Toffs, rowdy footballers, and now world leaders – horse racing gets all sorts excited. With political punting at an all-time high, Vlad and The Donald seemed more than happy to swap nukes for nags ahead of Cheltenham. We’ve seen a huge surge in political bets since Trump took office and with a big week of horseracing ahead it made perfect sense to offer punters the chance to bet on both.”