8/1/99: A syndicate of seven punters won in excess of £900,000 on the British Tote's Scoop6 today and are now just one winner away from collecting a cool £2 million.
The bet, consisting of 2,160 lines and costing £4,708.80 with tax, was placed by telephone with Coral by David Connolly-Smith, the Racing Post's German correspondent.
The seven punters stood proud after the victory of 20-1 Emphatic in the last leg, the Sun £2 Million Tote Scoop6 Novices' Handicap Hurdle, which saw the other 198 surviving tickets bite the dust.
The one successful win fund ticket collected a dividend of £917,021.10 and the successful syndicate is in line for a further £1,084,422 if they pick the winner of next Saturday's bonus race.
Rob Hartnett, the Tote's public relations director, said: "I think that this is the day the Scoop6 came of age.
"There was a record £1.2m bet into the pool today, and the previous record for any Tote bet was £922,827 in a 1996 Jackpot. The previous Scoop6 record was last Monday's £699,412."
The identity of the bonus race will not be revealed until next Friday and Hartnett added: "If the punter gets the bonus up, then he'll have won over £2m.
"If he doesn't win, the £1m will roll over and will still be there to be played for. Punters next week will probably be backing him not to get the winner.
"From what we know at the moment he'll be happy to go for publicity and we look forward to treating him like a king at Warwick next week when the Tote Warwick National is the feature race."
Simon Clare, Coral's spokesman, said of Connolly-Smith: "He's been a regular better over the years and he specialises in doing multiple perms when there are the big carryovers.
"All good things come to those who wait and his boat has finally come in."
Despite the record amount bet into the pool, Hartnett did admit that some off-course punters were unable to be accommodated because of a communications difficulty.
Hartnett explained: "There was a problem with the Vodafone system that connects the Tote Direct terminals. This did result in some betting shops not being able to take as many Scoop6 bets as they would have wanted.
"We are endeavouring to find out from Vodafone exactly how this problem occurred, and we will work with them to ensure it never happens again."
