By Orville Clarke, Freelance WriterTWO PUNTERS with maximum 32 points have shared the $402,700.00 first prize declared on last week's Racing Pools game.
One, who hails from MoBay, wagered $2,940.00 and in addition to his half share, secured three second and 10 third dividends to finish with $203,457.00.
The other winner, who resides at a Kingston 10 address, spent more ($3,456.00) but will collect less, $203,276.00 - this representing one first, three second and eight third dividend prizes.
While it was widely believed that 31 points would have been the winning level, both punters dug deep into their bag of tricks to find the 99-1 outsider SIR SASTRI BAHADUR, shock winner of the third race over the circular nine course.
Both men came up with a wonderful idea: Gang up on the third race and it worked.
The MoBay winner carried as many as seven horses in the eight-strong field, discarding only the 56-1 outsider FRANCO who finished last. And the other punter elected to carry six.
"I was tempted to carry the likely favourite Palmetto Xpress as a banker in this race," explains one of them. "But at the last moment something told me that all could not be right with that horse as his connections had dropped him from $145,000 to $100,000.
"Having got a safe banker in Flying Tiger, I decided not to use Palmetto Xpress as a banker. Instead, I decided to carry all eight, horses, but in the end I had to drop a horse and that was Franco."
The lucky punter, who has won the Pools several times in the past, said this was his biggest win.
"When Physics Book won the last race to give me eight winners, my friends told me that it was I alone who had won.
"I was beginning to believe them when I looked at the Super-6 and Pick-9 results and realised that nobody had won either bet owing to the upset of Sir Sastri Bahadur.
"I now realise that someone else had shared it with me, but I am happy just the same for the pot was big enough", he said.
A breakdown of the other prizes is as follows:
# 76 second prizes of $399.30 each for 31 points.
# 335 third dividends of $90.50 each. No fourth declared.
# Sales totalled $408,719.50 on 1,431 coupons - down from $439,679.00 and 1,697.00.
Although a fat prize was in the offing (thanks to three consecutive carryovers), the downturn in sales was not surprising this time around, as Friday racing affected Racing Pools' sales as usual.
The game produced five winning favourites in FLYING TIGER, FREEDOM CREST (9-5), CARDINAL LAW (7-5), ZIRCON (1-1) and PHYSICS BOOK (2-1).
GILNOCK and RUCKUS, both at odds of 2-1, were also quite popular among players, the Richie Todd-trained RUCKUS producing a terrific late run to win the Wayne DaCosta Trophy in a driving finish from SELENA MYSTIQUE.
Todd posted a triple also comprising FREEDOM CREST in the fourth Pools race, while Garrett Arscott (CARDINAL LAW, PHYSICS BOOK) saddled two winners and narrowly missed a third with SELENA MYSTIQUE.
