Belmont posts wrong superfecta

ELMONT, N.Y. - Placing judges at Belmont Park posted an incorrect number on the tote board for the fourth-place finisher in Thursday's ninth race, and the stewards made the outcome official, resulting in an incorrect payoff for the superfecta wager.

Placing judges confused the correct fourth-place finisher, Everybodywantsone - the 13 horse - with the 10 horse, Donquityourdayjob, who actually finished ninth. Thus, the order of finish was posted incorrectly as 8-14-5-10, which resulted in a superfecta payout of $1,073 for a $2 wager. Tickets with that combination were paid for approximately 2 minutes 49 seconds, until the error was caught and cashing on all pools was suspended, according to New York Racing Association officials. However, tickets on the 8-14-5-10 combination made via phone-bet accounts - advance-deposit wagers - were immediately credited.

The New York Racing Association suspended cashing on any pools for approximately 25 minutes while it recalculated the payout on the correct superfecta combination of 8-14-5-13, which was $800.

Pat Mahony, NYRA's senior vice president of parimutuel operations, said NYRA would no longer honor the combination of 8-14-5-10 even though that order of finish was made official. Mahony said it is up to the individual account deposit wagering companies or simulcast outlets to determine whether to honor the incorrect tickets.

For either winning payout on a $2 ticket, the bettor would have to sign a tax form, because the return on the bet was more than 300-1 odds. The winning payouts on $1 tickets or 10-cent tickets, however, did not require a tax form.

Mahony said that by law, NYRA has the right to refuse to pay out on the incorrect order of finish even though it was made official. In summarizing the law, Mahony said, "When there's an error in the posting of the payoffs, a recalculation should be done and from that point forward payment made on the correct order."

The superfecta pool was $111,978.