The 12th and final race Aug. 9 at Saratoga Race Course, carded at 1 1/8 miles on the outer turf, was instead conducted at a shorter distance of 1 1/16 miles. The race was declared official before race officials noticed the error.
Daily Racing Form initially reported the mistake in distances.
Splits and the final time posted on the television feed suggested conditions were amiss, with the quarter-mile fraction posted in :26.14, a half-mile split in :50.38, and a six-furlong fraction of 1:23.97 before a final time posted of 2:41.11. Such a final time would have been implausible for even an 1 1/2-mile race.
Equibase published no fractions or final time in its chart that appeared Saturday evening, with its trackman writing in the footnotes that those were omitted "pending video review."
BloodHorse hand-timed the 12th race from a standing start in 1:46 2/5, a time consistent with a 1 1/16-mile race under a standing start. Races are electronically timed with a run-up, meaning horses pass the timing mechanism with a running start, creating a faster official time.
Fidelightcayut won the New York-bred allowance under Ricardo Santana Jr., wearing down Terminal Veloicity by three-quarters of a length in the stretch. Charles J was a hard-charging third, falling a nose short of grabbing the place over the shorter-than-carded distance.
Counting multirace wagers that concluded with the day's last race, approximately $4 million in wagers were tied to the results of the race contested at the incorrect distance. Fidelightcayut paid $10.80 to win.
According to New York State Gaming Commission rules, "If any change be made in the order of finish of a race after the result is so declared official, it shall not affect the payoff."
The New York Racing Association "is reviewing the circumstances around race 12, which was contested at the incorrect distance of 1 1/16 miles rather than 1 1/8 miles," said Pat McKenna, vice president of communications.
He indicated those remarks were the extent of NYRA's comments Saturday evening.
This marked the second major distance gaffe at Saratoga in the past seven years. On Aug. 8, 2018, an incorrect starting gate placement caused the fifth race at Saratoga to be run at 1 1/8 miles instead of the as-carded 1 1/16 miles over the outer turf course.
Turf races can have multiple gate placement areas due in part to shifting settings of the inner rail.
Also, in May of 2024, a sprint race at another NYRA race was run at an incorrect distance at Aqueduct Racetrack, which followed a graphic error in the program.
Saturday's incident was the second starting gate miscue at Saratoga in the past three weeks, though the prior one was unrelated to distance. In the second race on July 20, two horses were loaded in incorrect stalls, with the horse scheduled to break from post 3 breaking from post 4, and the horse designated to break from post 4 starting from post 3.
Scott Jordan is the head starter at Saratoga, having joined NYRA this spring after serving in that same position at Churchill Downs. Stewards Victor Escobar, Cody Watkins, and Braulio Baeza Jr. declared the race official.
Under NYSGC authority, stewards are tasked with supervising racing and have the "power to regulate and control the conduct of all officials."
