No official time or Beyer for wrong-distance race

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – There will be no official time or Beyer Speed Figure assigned to Wednesday’s fifth race, which was run at the wrong distance.

Somelikeithotbrown, trained by Mike Maker, won the maiden turf race for New York-bred juvenile males by eight lengths. The race was scheduled to be run at 1 1/16 miles, but was actually run at 1 1/8 miles because the gate was positioned at the incorrect pole.

Initially, the final time was recorded at 1:44.51 for 1 1/16 miles. When it was determined that the race actually had been run at 1 1/8 miles, the final time was recorded as 1:50.51, reached by adding six seconds to the final posted time.

Late Thursday, officials from Equibase opted to remove the internal fractions and readjusted the final time to 1:49.32 based on a hand time.

On Friday, Equibase officials said there would be no final time at all.

“On Thursday, the race was reviewed and we decided to remove the fractions from the chart, and replaced the final time with a hand time derived from the video and update the chart with the appropriate commentary,” Tom Roentz, track and field manager for Equibase, wrote in an e-mail to Daily Racing Form. “After further review, we decided to remove the final time as well.”

Andrew Beyer said that since there was no official time, there would be no Beyer Speed Figure assigned.

Craig Milkowski, of TimeformUS, hand-timed the race off the video and came up with a final time of 1:50.78, with internal fractions of 24.79 for the quarter, 47.68 for a half-mile, and 1:13.11 for six furlongs.

As for how the race could have been run at the wrong distance, that remains under review, according to comments provided by the spokesmen for the New York Racing Association and the New York State Gaming Commission.

“NYRA, in conjunction with the NYSGC and stewards, is in the process of reviewing the exact circumstances to determine how this error occurred and how to prevent it from ever happening again,” NYRA spokesman Pat McKenna wrote in a text.

Brad Maione, director of communications for the NYSGC, wrote in an e-mail, “We are reviewing the incident and have yet to determine a course of action.”