Racing: Jackpot builds up

A JACKPOT pool of pounds 500,000 is in prospect at Kempton today after punters found Saturday's results at Newbury too difficult.

"It's quite possible we might break the half-million barrier which will give us the biggest pool since Royal Ascot," Rob Hartnett, the Tote spokesman, said yesterday. Today's Kempton card looks formidable, but will surely not prove so hard as Newbury's - only one favourite gained a place there all day.

The Tote offered a pounds 1m bonus to any punter winning the Trifecta alone in Saturday's Ayr Gold Cup, but there were 11.67 winning tickets. The dividend to a pounds 1 stake was pounds 14,210.94. The bookmakers' Tricast dividend, which has tended to pay less than the Trifecta, was pounds 20,742.40.