Charles Town Spill -- 7 of 8 horses DNF.
 

I was at my girlfriends last night for dinner and I bet a stupid basketball game because she doesn't get any horse racing on her cable.

LSU is up 11 points at halftime at home and I think the game is in hand. We go to the casino at halftime for drinks and LSU starts to have a meltdown. They have a chance to win the game and cover with a layup at the buzzer and blow it. They lost in OT.

Anyway, I had already bet a Scooter Davis horse in the 8th race at Charles Town on the computer before I left. Scooter the Shooter claimed him from a low percentage trainer and he popped a 79 Beyer 1st off the claim two starts back. Last out, the jock blew the irons on him coming out of the gate. Winning Beyer par for the class level was only a 68 and Scooter's horse was 4-to-1 on the ML.

I'm seriously having the most miserable time ever watching LSU fucl< up in the 2nd half. People who bet basketball and have to put up with that torture to try and win a bet that pays less than even money... I feel for them.

I get so annoyed that I press up and go to the window and bet Scooter's horse...as you can see thanks to my cell phone camera.



To make a long story short... the leader breaks down going into the turn and Scooter's horse is the only one in the race who actually finishes.

The inquiry sign was up for atleast 30 minutes...but they paid the win, place, and show on the winner. The horse paid $5.60 to win, $7.60 to place, and $7.40 to show. Instead of refunding all exotics -- they also paid the exacta and trifecta as a 3-all or 3-all-all.

I wasn't sure of the rules...but I was expecting the race to be declared a 'no contest' and all bets refunded. Every horse but the leader who broke down was ok. Not sure about the jockeys...a couple of them bit the dust on the turn of a 4.5 furlong sprint and are probably not OK.

Here is the result chart: http://www1.drf.com/drfPDFChartRaces...=20120229&RN=8

One of the craziest races I've ever watched in my entire life.

If that game didn't kill Dale Brown nothing will.

Video of the spill at Charles Town...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-rQofsWM9Q

...and still went a 42 for the half.


I checked google news, drf, equidaily, and paulick...no update or mention on the main page...unless it's buried somewhere.

I'm positive that half mile fraction isn't correct. The timing beam at the 1/16th pole was probably tripped by a person or outrider who crossed it by the outside fence to head in the direction of the spill before the #3 got there.

The way I was explained it by a photo finish guy... is that the timing beam starts 20 seconds after the previous quarter mile... and anything that passes the beam after that point will stop the timer. If a spyder is crawling across it, it could trip it. A bird could trip it. A bee could trip it. Tracks like Tampa and Gulfstream that are loaded with insects and birds are notorious for bad clockings. Where as a track like Aqueduct -- New York City in the dead of winter -- is less likey to have those problems. They have a practical swamp with a gator in the infield at Tampa.

It's just your average Florida retention pond, and according to a reliable source (initials RG), the gator hasn't been seen in months.

But sea gulls, that's a different story;)

Go Vols!!!

Thanks for that, we all thought the 42 was correct.

They don't call him Scooter for nothin. :D

what i don't understand is how it wasn't declared no contest.

Easy, money.

so the lost takeout would be higher than purse money and winning wagers paid? well, i guess it must be if that's what they did.
probably explains the half hour inquiry, they were crunching numbers.

What happens to the purse money for 2nd, 3rd, etc....?

:D We need Dale to come back and coach now.

The chart indicates it was paid to the winner. I'm not sure that is right, I thought usually it just reverts back to the purse fund. Who knows what they do at CT though?

I saw this happen live last night, and since Doug admitted to betting on the race I will admit it as well.:rolleyes: How is this not stealing from the bettors? I can understand WPS payouts, but EX- TRI- SF bets should be refunded in this case. ALL PLAYERS get screwed and the track gets over on people?????

The hardest thing to understand in this whole situation is......how can you bet on LSU....they are so erratic it's unnerving. I went to the PMAC and watched the GA game last Wed. and they should have been up the whole game by 15, but it was close to the end, they don't do the little things very well sometimes and it costs them.

Why would it be? Because of excessive non finishers? Where do you draw the line? When a horse breaks down and two or three others fall over him and lose jocks, nobody says those races should be no contests. Now, seven don't finish and its should be a no contest?

I don't get it.

why was there a consolation "ALL" paid on the pick 3 and double closing in that race? Doesn't seem right if they paid the win slot. I guess that's WV for you.

I believe some states have rules on how many starters must finish in order for it to be an official race

Exactly. I think it's 50% in California.

Most places pay all to the winner

Way back when when I was at Yonkers we had a similar race where only 1 horse finished. The horse had broke stride and was way behind and kind of weaved his way through the carnage to cross the wire.

I posted on the assumption that if they had such a rule (or did not have one), that they followed it.

Once the horses leave the gate unless there is some sort of track malfunction (gate stuck on track, lights go off, etc.) the horses are declared starters. If it had been a claiming race and there was a claim it would have been valid as well.

I know Aqueduct had a race where two horses finished and the money reverted back, 2009.

I think the fairest way is to distribute the winner share of the purse to the winner, and the rest goes back into the account. To penalize one outfit because no one else finished the race seems a bit harsh, especially because that horse ran a race and is effectively down a start with no return.

As for the wagering... that's tough. This is horse racing, and stuff is going to happen, we all know that going in when we place a bet. I think paying the win pool out and then treating the rest of the wagers with ALL's underneath in ex/tri/super is fair. If you do that, then I think the multi-race wagers should payoff with that horse being the winner, because the others were paid off as such.

The ALL payoffs were not for the spill race, but the canceled 9th.

that's what i thought too, which is why i asked. perhaps they had no rule, which is what caused the long wait...and perhaps there will be a rule spelled out in future there. it's not as tho every possible scenario is thought of beforehand to produce a rule.

I got inside information that Meyer Lansky bet Tennessee.

There was a 1 horse race at Colonial a few years back and I'm pretty sure the winner got the entire purse. Amoss trained the winner and Karamonos rode the horse and at the 1/4 pole the horse ducked out and almost dropped him. Might have been the first horse to lose a walkover.

I remember that race. Found the chart

http://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbP...AY=D&STYLE=EQB

It shows a purse of $17,000, but they paid out only $14535. That is an odd percentage. There was also an $8,500 bonus for the Virginia Breeders Fund that reverted, but that doesn't explain the other $2465. Weird stuff.

No idea how they got that payout figure. The horse in the walkover was actually still running as recently as last summer at Mountaineer as a 9yo.

I think he just got the winners share as a VA bred

60% of 17000=10200
60% of 8400=5040
15240-usual bullshit that they take out=14535

There are different rules in various jurisdictions. Here's what we use in California

1544. Calling off Race.
(a) If the stewards determine a race cannot start before midnight or cannot be conducted in accordance with the Board’s rules and regulations, they shall cancel and call off such race.
(b) The stewards may declare a race no contest if mechanical failure or interference during the running of the race affects the majority of horses in such race.
(c) Any wagers on races called off, canceled, or declared no contest shall be refunded, and no purse, prize or stakes shall be awarded.
(d) If a race is called off, canceled, or declared no contest, any submitted claims shall be void.
(e) A race shall be canceled if no horse covers the course.

That's a good angle, almost as good as......well......you know.

For those of you hopeful that there were as few injuries to jockeys and horses as possible under these circumstances, here's an update.

One jockey in the hospital with no life threatening injuries and one horse lost. Amazing that is was not more.

http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/sto...ockey-Injured/

that is amazing considering that whole incident. also read that the race just before that one had a horse break down. i know CT is saying the track conditions aren't what made them cancel the final race, but knowing that two races in a row had incidents, i'm not so sure i believe that.

CT is dangerous. I can't tell you how many breakdowns I've seen first hand happening at one particular area of the track. They should fix the issues once and for all or shut the place down.

I don't go there any more.

The surface looked like a wading pool and there was torrential rain. Other than that everything looked great.