Tote Direct starts to take laughing stock out of the Quadpot

The Tote's Quadpot, in which the aim is to find placed horses in the third, fourth, fifth and six races on a card, and which has produced risibly small pools since its inception, became a bet worth winning yesterday when it became available to punters in the 2,200 betting shops that have the Tote Direct facility. Of a pool of pounds 2,297 at Wincanton, pounds 2,234 was contributed through Tote Direct, while at Lingfield pounds 1,656 of the pounds 1,749 pool came through the new facility.

Mark Openshaw, Tote Direct's marketing manager, said: "It has had a bad press but we've now proved that we can get pools big enough to justify the bet."