A nearly 20-minute delay ahead of Friday’s sixth race at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky., was caused by an incorrectly-posted order of finish in the fifth race of the opening day card. Keeneland would admit that it was a United Tote “operator error.”
The winner of the turf allowance race was Healing (3), and was correctly posted on the tote board and television monitors. However, the second and third-place finishers were switched on the board and in the original pari-mutuel payoffs: Red Hornet (9) was posted as the third-place finisher, when he actually finished three-quarters of a length ahead of Rochambeau (8).
The race was declared official prior to the mistake being uncovered.
Keeneland officials released the following statement after the incident:
“In today’s fifth race at Keeneland, the order of finish was inadvertently posted as 3-8-9-10. 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.”
A subsequent statement from track officials said:
“Officials have determined the error in today’s fifth race was due to United Tote operator error. While safeguards to prevent this from happening are in place, additional measures are being taken to create further checks and balances.
“As previously announced, any tickets that were cashed on track before the corrected order of finish have been honored.
“Advance Deposit Wagering (ADW) accounts, including NYRA Bets, TVG, TwinSpires and Xpressbet, will be adjusted to reflect the correct pricing.”
The statement did not outline the “safeguards” that failed to work, what additional measures would be taken or whether the United Tote operator was sanctioned for his costly mistake.
