THE Quartet was the star on Greyville’s Vodacom Durban July Day, as turnovers went through the roof.

Overall turnovers at Greyville’s Vodacom Durban July meeting on Saturday were up 10.62% but as far as the Durban July itself was concerned, the increase from last year was an outstanding 27.68%.

While the Pick 6 was marginally down and did not exceed the expected R12 million it appears the reason for that was the overwhelming support for the Quartet, which was the big winner on Durban July day. There was a R1-million added to kick start the pool but even taking that amount off, the pool was up almost 35% from last year’s figure of R10,655,842 to some 16.2 million.

The Quartet of Power King, Punta Arenas, Tellina and Futura paid R82,066 to 197.40 winners.

Also receiving a major boost was the Place pool, which increased by almost 34%. However, that was more expected as Vee Moodley, Executive Director: Sports betting for TAB points out. “This year we were back to 18 horses in the July whereas last year we had only 16. We also paid out six places this time against the five places last time.

“The Quartet was way higher than we predicted and in fact, is the highest Exotic pool ever offered by TAB,” said Moodley.

“This year was quite an eye opener and I have some exciting new ideas for next year’s race.”

The Win pool also showed a decent increase of 22.8% but again that can be put down to the increased number of runners.