Still sorting out just what went wrong, Keeneland racing officials had to correct an embarrassing mistake in the results of the fifth race on opening day Friday – but not before an untold amount of money was paid into the wrong hands.
“They really haven’t figured it out,” Keeneland vice president of racing Gatewood Bell told Horse Racing Nation. “Somehow it was transposed. The 8 and the 9 got flipped.”
It happened in a one-mile allowance race on the rain-soaked turf. Red Hornet and Rochambeau finished second and third in that order behind Healing, but that was not how it was first posted on the tote board when the race was made official.
“The order of finish was inadvertently posted as 3-8-9-10,” a Keeneland track statement said. “The correct order of finish for the race is 3-9-8-10. Any tickets that were cashed on track before the corrected order of finish have been honored. The race was repriced, and the correct running order prices are official. Officials are continuing to look into the cause of the error.”
It was about 10 minutes after the race when track announced Kurt Becker urged a good-sized crowd to “hold all tickets.”
As he repeated the announcement several times, the remaining races were delayed while track management apparently sorted through what went wrong. Horses for the sixth race already were in the paddock, and they went through their paces before the gates opened 15 minutes late.
Confusion continued later when revised prices were posted based on odds to $1 rather than a $2 stake.
Advanced-deposit wagering platforms across the country were impacted, too.
“What typically happens is that tote does the re-price, then they send us a report with the changes,” said spokesperson Tonya Abeln of Churchill Downs Inc., which operates the Twin Spires ADW. “We manually go through that report and credit anyone that was negatively impacted.”
Both Bell and Abeln said money was paid out incorrectly to lucky bettors who benefitted from the equivalent of a bank error.
“Those that had the incorrect order of finish keep money already posted,” Abeln said. “They could have already withdrawn or wagered it, and the accounts can’t go negative.”
That did not, however, keep at least one bettor using another ADW from complaining on Twitter about a balance deficit that was brought on by the early post of the juxtaposed numbers.
Although rare, it is not unheard of for the wrong numbers to be posted when a race goes official. It notably happened in a race at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 10, 2019, when a dead heat for second place contributed to a placing judge inputting the wrong number for the fourth-place horse. That judge was subsequently fired.
A Keeneland spokesperson said further details on what caused the error would be announced once they are determined.
