Saratoga race run at wrong distance

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Wednesday’s fifth race at Saratoga, a maiden race for New York-bred juvenile males, was run at the incorrect distance of 1 1/8 miles. It had been scheduled for 1 1/16 miles.

There seemed to be something amiss when the race’s fractions were posted as incredibly slow – 29.69 seconds for the quarter, 53.50 for the half, and 1:19.50 for six furlongs. Initially, corrected fractions were reported and the final time for 1 1/16 miles was reported as 1:44.51, though it’s unclear where that time came from. The official final time will go down as 1:50.51 for 1 1/8 miles.

Somelikeithotbrown, a son of Big Brown trained by Mike Maker, won the race by eight lengths.

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On Thursday, a review of the video of the race confirmed that the gate was in the wrong place. An amended footnote in the official Equibase chart read: “This race was scheduled for one mile and one sixteenth but was run at one mile and one furlong due to the gate being placed in the wrong location. The times were adjusted from the video and compiled by subtracting six seconds from the time on video.”

The New York Racing Association declined to comment on what happened. The stewards said they were looking into it.