New Mexico Commission discussing how to address incorrect Sunland disqualification

The New Mexico Racing Commission is exploring options to compensate horseplayers who were impacted by a race last Friday in which stewards at Sunland Park have acknowledged that they mistakenly disqualified a horse from second to fourth, according to the executive director of the commission.

Ismael Trejo, the executive director, said on Tuesday that commission staff have had discussions “as recently as this morning” with Sunland Park about the possibility of identifying bettors who were negatively impacted by the mistake. Those possibilities include asking account-wagering companies to identify wagers made on the race and then distributing payouts on tickets that should have been valid.

“We’re going to address this to the best of our ability,” Trejo said.

The mistaken disqualification, which was first reported by The Paulick Report, occurred in the seventh race at Sunland on Friday, a starter/optional-claiming race for Quarter Horses. At the conclusion of an inquiry, the stewards disqualified A Separate Star and moved the horse to fourth.

However, video of the race in question did not show any interference by A Separate Star in the 400-yard race. Stewards acknowledged that they had made the mistake in a call placed to the racing commission shortly after the race was made official, Trejo said.

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A hearing has been scheduled for March 9 to determine how the mistake was made, Trejo said. At the very least, the original order of finish will be restored, Trejo said.

Trejo declined to comment on the sequence of events leading up to the mistake.

“We’ve decided to figure all that out and correct the mistake through the hearing,” he said. A separate set of stewards will preside over the hearing, and the stewards at Sunland who made the mistake will appear as witnesses, Trejo said.

Stewards rely on a video system to review races, and, prior to making a race official, the stewards typically review the replay for any obvious incidents of interference or fouls. It’s possible that the stewards mistakenly rewound the tape to the sixth race and reviewed that race – which does show interference at the start by the No. 2 horse – but Trejo would not confirm that as a possibility.

The total win-place-show pool on the seventh race was $14,584. The other three pools impacted by the disqualification were the exacta ($13,641), the trifecta ($8,247), and the superfecta ($9,465).

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