Miscalculation Won £942

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30978, 7 February 1966, Page 1

Miscalculation Won £942

•'The Press’’ Special Service INVERCARGILL, February 6. A miscalculation led to Mr J, P. McLeod, of Balfour, holding the sole 5s ticket on the on-course double at the Gore Racing Club's meeting on Saturday. The double. Star Quality and The Kurd, was at odds of 3769 to 1 and Mr McLeod received the pool of £942 5s for his 5s ticket. The pool before deductions.

amounted to £ll4O, of which £39 10s was invested on Star Quality. Mr McLeod, secretary of the Cattle Flat Racing Club, spent £5 on the double on Star Quality. “I liked the way he went at the Cattle Flat non-tote meeting at Invercargill a fort- ' night ago,” he said. “He’s a good solid horse.” I Mr McLeod also had £2 for a place on Star Quality, which returned him £9 10s. “So I had my bet covered even before the second leg was run.”

When it came to the 14horse second leg, Mr McLeod’s fancies were Savings I

Bank and King Senna. He put four of his 20 5s tickets

on Savings Bank and three on King Senna. He decided to split the remaining 13 tickets on eight horses, leaving out four runners—John’s Mistake, Cantarini, Cal Flight and The Kurd. But when the totalisator clerk issued the tickets he pointed out to Mr McLeod that he had used only 19 of his tickets, so at the last minute, he put ticket No. 20 on The Kurd, then invested £1 to win on each of the three horses he did not have running in the double.. At first it was announced that the dividend was £3769,

but Mr McLeod's ticket could be worth only as much as was in the pool. It would not have mattered if he had had four tickets on The Kurd; the return would have been the same. Mr McLeod also held the sole ticket on Polly’s Pal, but she ran last. If Mr McLeod had not made his lucky miscalculation in allotting his tickets, and The Kurd had run without a ticket on her chance, the double pool would have been shared by those people holding the 12 5s tickets on the second leg runner-up, Happy Days.