In Honour of the exeter man who won £1.4 mln and the "Few Little irish jokes" thread
Paddy was a regular visitor at the Galway Races. One afternoon he noticed an unusual sight. Right before the first race, a Catholic priest visited one of the horses in the stable area and gave it a blessing.
Paddy watched the race very carefully, and sure enough the blessed horse came in first!
He followed the priest before the next race, and again he went to the stables and performed a similar procedure. Thinking there might be something to it, Paddy put a couple of euros on the blessed horse. Sure enough it came in by two lengths and he won close to fifty euros!
The priest continued the same procedure through the next few races and Paddy won each time. He was now ahead a thousand, so between races Paddy left the track, went to the bank and withdrew his life's savings.
The biggest race of the day was the last one. Paddy followed the priest and watched which horse he blessed. He then went to the betting window and put every euro he owned on that horse to win.
The race began. Down the stretch they came, and as they crossed the finish line, Paddy's pick was last! Devastated, he found the priest and told him that he had been watching him bless the horses all day, and they all became winners except the last horse on which he had bet his life savings.
He then asked, "What happened to the last horse which you blessed? Why didn't it win like the others?"
"You must be a Protestant, Paddy" sighed the priest. "The trouble is you can't tell the difference between a blessing and the last rites."