Eight punters win racing jackpot

Customers pay £2 for the chance to pick the winners of six races

A lucky punter from Berkshire has scooped over £400,000 for a £2 stake in a weekly horse racing bet.

The player held one of eight winning tickets which shared a record jackpot of nearly £3.5m which had rolled over for 11 weeks.

The Tote Scoop6 challenged punters to pick the winners of six televised races on Saturday with a minimum £2 stake.

Record turnover was reported by Tote with £4,167,091 staked, beating last week's previous record of £2m.

The jackpot was £3,496,091 and each ticket scooped £437,011.

The player, who comes from Thatcham near Newbury, will now attempt to win a bonus fund next week of £1,529,525 - open only to Saturday's winners.

He, along with the other seven ticketholders, will chose a horse in a race next Saturday, most likely the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury.

If more than one ticketholder backs the winning horse, they will share the bonus.

Racing UK presenter Peter Naughton was part of a syndicate who own another of the eight winning tickets.

"My hands are shaking," he said.

"I've got a small percentage of whatever the dividend is. I threw £50 at it two weeks ago with a load of other lads and I threw another £50 at it last weekend, so I thought in for a penny in for a pound and we've all had another £50 each today.

"My £50 would be about a 60th of it if past experiences are anything to go by, so we are not talking life-changing sums of money."

Totesport spokesman Damian Walker said: "It has been a fantastic day for racing and the Tote.

"Our turnover easily exceeded our expectations and we will be paying out those punters who backed there being over £4m turnover at 50-1 with a smile on our face."

Here is how the afternoon's events unfolded:

• The first leg was claimed by 7-2 favourite Atlantic Story in the 2.10pm Lingfield Park race, leaving 508,898 tickets in the running

• This number was cut to 34,477 as Romany Princess ran out the winner of leg two, in the 2.40pm Lingfield Park race

• The third leg was claimed by Possol (15-2), Haydock's 2.45pm race, leaving 3,768 punters in the running

• Yahrab had an easy time of it in the 3.20pm Lingfield Park race, with the 15-2 chance's victory leaving only 389 tickets still standing

• In leg five, Heathcliff's success at Huntingdon meant 37 tickets went forward to the final leg at Lingfield

• Irish raider Duff, a 5-1 chance, won the 3.50pm race, meaning eight tickets shared the huge jackpot.