NYRA mistake leaves industry hot under the collar
By Ashley Tamulonis
Belmont at the Big A’s first race on its Memorial Day card left owners, bettors, trainers, etc. reeling. Carded at 5 ½-furlongs for 2-year-old maidens, the race was instead contested at 5-furlongs due to an error by an outside vendor. All other race descriptions—the overnight, written race conditions in the program, advance-deposit wagering companies, and Equibase—were correct. The gate crew, however, follows a thumbnail diagram provided by the aforementioned vendor, and it was that diagram that was incorrect, leading to the wrong placement of the starting gate.
Trainers select races according to how well they believe their trainee will do under the written conditions, and errors like this change the whole complexion of the race. Likewise, bettors put money on entrants, once again, based on how well they believe that horse will run. Switching from turf to dirt at least allows trainers to scratch their horses prior to post time, but no one was given that opportunity here.
Even more egregious is the fact that the three stewards either failed to notice the incorrect placement or trusted that the gate crew had read the conditions properly. In the past, New York State Gaming Commission steward Braulio Baeza fined a clocker and NYRA racing employees for minor errors, so the question is whether he will “fine” himself for allowing this mistake to be made. Not doing so simply makes the situation worse.
The race ended up being won by War Tax ($6.90), who held off stablemate My Mitole by two lengths. Paula’s Star was another length back in third. Had the race been contested at the correct distance, it’s possible that the order of finish could have changed as My Mitole was making up ground on War Tax.
NYRA had little to say for themselves other than that they would review their protocols to ensure that this scenario will not happen again. That won’t help any losing customers who handicapped the race at 5 ½ furlongs. The glaring problem with that statement is that something similar happened a few years ago. According to Daily Racing Form’s David Grening, a Saratoga turf race was contested at 1 1/8-mile rather than 1 1/16-mile back in 2018.
These two incidents are not even the beginning of NYRA’s issues. On August 2, 1986 the Saratoga stewards misidentified the filly that should have been disqualified for interference. Instead of Syntonic, who was wearing saddlecloth 11 and bumped a rival, knocking her through the hedge, the stewards disqualified winner Allumeuse, who was wearing saddlecloth 8, and placed her last. Anyone with even just one good eye could have made the correct call, but the stewards clearly had blinders on that day.
Because they clearly didn’t care if their judgment was correct, the stewards wouldn’t even listen to the two jockeys involved in the mishap when they tried to tell them that Allumeuse was not involved in the incident. Furthermore, people that had bet on Allumeuse were swindled out of nearly $1 million in payouts.
Steward Sal Ferrara stated that he and the other stewards learned of their mistake within a minute of disqualifying Allumeuse, however they did nothing to reverse the error. Instead of shutting down the mutuel machines and stopping payoffs, they let the incorrect result stand.
One of the biggest jobs of the stewards is to protect the interests of the horse players and the integrity of the sport. But when incidents like this happen and nothing is done to make it right, it throws the whole industry into turmoil. It’s bad enough that rules vary across jurisdictions and HISA is ruining careers, such as that of George Weaver, but when simple rules cannot be adhered to, it makes bettors lose faith in the industry. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: our sport needs an overarching Commissioner like other major sports already have. Love him or hate him, Mike Repole is on the right path in terms of trying to get horse racing cleaned up. Unfortunately, he is not an “official” Commissioner and lacks any real authority.
A fundamental of a good business model is knowing who your customer is and taking care of them. NYRA appears to have a history of successfully doing neither. While some errors are unavoidable the ones describe here don’t fall into that category and appear to show a long standing pattern.
