JP McManus' net worth as he extends his Cheltenham record on 75th birthday
Limerick businessman and racehorse owner JP McManus celebrated turning 75 with two winners at the Cheltenham Festival on Tuesday.
The New Lion came third behind the Willie Mullins-trained Lossiemouth in the Champion Hurdle, but McManus-owned horses managed to pull off a 208-1 double on the opening day of the festival.
Saratoga won the McCoy Juvenile Hurdle, and outsider Johnnywho edged out the favourite, another McManus horse called Jagwar, to take the Ultimate Handicap Chase.
He now has 86 winners at Cheltenham, extending his record as the most successful owner in the history of the jump-racing calendar's flagship festival 50 years after buying his first horse.
McManus had his first Cheltenham winner in 1982 when Mister Donovan won the Novices Hurdle, and he now owns hundreds of horses in Ireland and Britain.
He has an estimated net worth of €2.1bn, derived from his business ventures and his success in gambling -- he won a reported £250,000 in bets on that Novices Hurdles 44 years ago.
McManus is a lifelong gambler and a former bookmaker himself, having started out at Market Field dog racing track in his native Limerick at the age of 21.
Although he has not paid income or capital gains tax in Ireland since 1995, he had paid the €200,000 domicile levy for resident tax exiles who earn more than €1m and has property worth in excess of €5m.
After winning $17.4m in a backgammon match against Israeli-American private equity titan Alec Gores, the US Internal Revenue Service took $5.2m in tax.
McManus used the fact of his payment of the domicile levy to argue that he should avail of an Irish-US double taxation treaty and that he should be repaid the $5.2m, but he was unsuccessful.
The financier is known for his philanthropy, donating €1m to every GAA county board, while his JP McManus Charitable Foundation has donated €103m since 2000, and the JP McManus Pro-Am golf tournament has raised hundreds of millions more.
But he built his fortune as a bookmaker and later as a private foreign exchange trader, profiting massively from the devaluation of the pound sterling on Black Wednesday in 1992, alongside long-time associates John Magnier, Dermot Desmond and Joe Lewis.
The group subsequently took over the luxury Sandy Row resort in Barbados, and McManus also owns Martinstown House beside Martinstown Stud in Co Limerick.
The 38,000 sq ft mansion has been described as "the largest private house in Ireland".
There are also homes in Switzerland and on Dublin's exclusive Ailesbury Road, and in 2015 he purchased Adare Manor in Co Limerick for €30m before spending a further €70-100m on its renovation.
The resort is set to host the Ryder Cup in 2027.
McManus and Magnier also earned a reported profit of €230m from the sale of their 29.4% stake in Manchester United to Malcolm Glazer in 2005.
The pair had long been rumoured to be mounting a full takeover of the Premier League club before the Glazer takeover.
Former United manager Alex Ferguson and McManus also fell out over the disputed ownership of champion racehorse Rock of Gibraltar.
McManus and Magnier hold a 23% stake in UK pub group Mitchells & Butler, which reported a £312m operating profit and revenue of more than £2.6bn in 2024.
Winning jockey Mark Walsh (r) poses in the winners enclosure alongside owner JP McManus (c) and trainer Gavin Cromwell (l) following the Gold Cup victory with Inothewayurthinkin in the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup Chase during day four of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse on March 14, 2025 in Cheltenham, England. (Pic: Michael Steele/Getty Images)
McManus will always be associated with horse racing though, and since buying his first thoroughbred, Cill Dara, at the age of 26, he has had more than 4,000 winners.
He has come a long way since working as a digger for his father's earth-moving business.
Photo: JP McManus poses at Fairyhouse Racecourse on November 30, 2025 in Ratoath, Ireland. (Pic: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images)
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