KEY POINTS:
There were seven winning tickets sharing the record pick6 jackpot of more than $943,000 at Te Rapa.
A total of 1.06 units struck the guaranteed pick6 pool of $1 million on the Taumarunui Racing Club's meeting on Saturday.
TAB racing manager Michael Dore said the biggest winner was a percentage bet of 40 per cent which was placed via the TAB's internet betting service.
The bet pays out $377,358.40. Dore said just $28.80 was spent, although the punter, or punters, could have spent more in other combinations.
The other winning tickets were:
* 14 per cent to pay out $132,075.40. Placed at the Richmond TAB in Nelson with a spend of $320.
* 12 per cent to pay out $113,207.50. Placed at the Matamata TRAC bar with a spend of $100.
* 10 per cent to pay out $94,339.60. Placed at the Ellerslie TAB in Auckland with a spend of $5.
* 10 per cent. Placed at the Excelsior Hotel, Christchurch with a spend of $240.
* 10 per cent. Placed at the Taupo TAB with a spend of $330.
* 10 per cent. Placed on the internet with a spend of $450.
Dore said the dividend of $943,396.20 was a record for the New Zealand TAB.
The previous highest, also for a pick6, was more than $600,000 in 1990.
More than $930,000 was spent on the pick6, which requires punters to select the winners of six designated races.
The first leg was won by the favourite, Sand Hawk, which left 443,549.92 live units.
Third favourite Anood Prospect and fourth favourite Figure Of Speech won the next two legs to reduce the number of live units to 50,177.46 and 7491.72 respectively.
But the win of Tuscany Dancer in the fourth leg would have extinguished the hopes of most. Tuscany Dancer paid $27.10 to win and slashed the live units to 152.8.
Third favourite Taking The Mickey won the fifth leg to leave 18.46 live units going into the last leg, with all of the 12 runners covered.
The last leg was won by fourth favourite The Cosmob, and Dore said he thought some runners in the last race might not have been covered.
"It was surprising there was money on every horse," he said.
"The first two favourites win most races and usually they have the bulk of tickets."
Saturday's pick6 was the 18th in the TAB's history with a pool of $1 million or more. Two have carried pools of $2 million each.
In 2004, a $2 million pot returned a dividend of $25,920.15 with 77.16 winning units. Another $2 million pot in 2003 returned a dividend of $261,096 for 7.66 winning units.
- NZPA
