Broberg sends out wrong horse to win race

There was a case of mistaken horse identity in the fifth race Saturday night at Remington Park, and the mix-up was confirmed to Daily Racing Form by Karl Broberg, who trains both horses involved. Collateral Kitten is listed as the official winner of the non-winners-of-two-lifetime turf route, but the mare Onemorefastdance, a four-time winner, actually ran in the race. The Paulick Report first reported the case, citing a tip from Onemorefastdance’s breeder, John Lowder.

Broberg was reached by DRF on Sunday.

“It was an absolutely embarrassing mistake,” he said. “All of us are ashamed of it and are working to put protocols in place where something like this can never happen again. I’ve already reached out to the owners, and I’m going to make it right with them as well. There really isn’t much more to say . . . I want to hide from now until the end of time, or when everyone forgets.”

The chart of the fifth race does not yet indicate a disqualification. Broberg said the mistake was found in the test barn. The winner’s share of the purse was $8,376, while the winner paid $4.

Kelly Cathey, the executive director of the Oklahoma Racing Commission, said Sunday night he had no comment on the race at this time. Cathey said the matter is under investigation.

There are regulatory procedures in place to attempt to prevent the wrong horse from running in a race. Identifiers “flip lips” of horses in the paddock for a race to verify that the animal’s individualized lip tattoo coincides with the number on the foal papers that the identifier has in the paddock for said race.

Following a race, the winner and horses “tagged” by the stewards for any reason proceed to the test barn, where a state veterinarian draws blood. In addition, urine samples are collected for testing. The veterinarian also will flip lips to check the tattoo, and if the sequence does not coincide with the papers, the error is found.