Horse Racing / Bill Christine : Saratoga Stewards Stew in Their Wrong Choice

Little Finger Lakes race track, not far from picturesque Canandaigua Lake in central New York State, hasn’t received this much attention in all its 25 years of operation.

Now it is getting attention for the wrong reason. Sal Ferrara, the state steward at fashionable, high-falutin’ Saratoga, has been exiled to Finger Lakes for his role in declaring the wrong horse the winner of the second race Aug. 2.

Ferrara and his two associates in the stewards’ stand disqualified a 3-year-old filly, even though she had cleanly won the grass race by 1 1/2 lengths. The horse the stewards should have disqualified finished third after crowding another horse into the hedge and eventually forcing her to go down.

At the end of the day, long after their mistake had been pointed out to them by at least one newspaperman, two jockeys and one patrol judge, the stewards sheepishly arrived at the press box with the announcement that they were revising the order of finish. The horse that had finished first would still receive the winner’s share of the purse, and the horse that had run third, but tried to knock the other horse over the hedge, would be dropped back to last place.

Trouble was, more than $1.2 million had been bet by a crowd of more than 42,000 at Saratoga and by thousands of others at satellite wagering facilities around the state. By law, about 83% of that amount--about $1 million--had to be paid out to the bettors. But the fans who held good daily-double, quinella and win-place-show tickets on Allumeuse, the name of the winning horse, were out of luck.

Once the stewards made their unfortunate decision, the “official” sign lit up and the incorrect payoffs were made. Class-action suits would seem likely, but for litigants to win, a court would have to disregard the rules of racing.

It is fortunate for the stewards and the track that the incident occurred at bucolic Saratoga, in the heart of the tranquilizing Adirondacks, rather than in fast-paced New York City. At Saratoga, there is more concern about a matching hat or ascot, or about having enough Perrier in the picnic basket, than about cashing winning tickets.

At Belmont Park, Aqueduct or the Meadowlands in nearby New Jersey, where more of New York’s high-rolling bettors gather, such a mistake probably would have started a full-scale riot.

Not too many years ago, there was a riot at the Meadowlands, caused by the scratching of a heavy favorite, ridden by Angel Cordero, at the starting gate. The horse was part of an entry, and the bettors were stuck with a much less desirable runner because of the scratch.

The crowd stormed the mutuel windows, forcing track management to cancel the races and close the plant for the evening.

The incident at Saratoga prompts these questions:

--How did it happen?

--What could have been done about it?

Some observers have said that had Gerry Burke, the senior steward at Saratoga, been present, the mistake would not have been made. Burke was away Aug. 2 because of an illness in the family.

The same thing was suggested last year at Hialeah, where veteran steward Walter Blum was absent because of his mother’s death and a judgment call on a slam-bang finish to the Flamingo Stakes bewildered most everyone, including John Galbreath, the owner of Proud Truth, who won first money as a result of the decision. A blue-ribbon panel appointed by the State of Florida later rescinded the stewards’ verdict and took away Proud Truth’s win.

Racing is in a lamentable situation, however, if the absence of just one official leaves the sport vulnerable at two of the most important tracks in the country.

But this may indeed be racing’s plight. The Daily Racing Form seldom mixes in controversy, but after the disputed race at Saratoga, Joe Hirsch wrote:

“It seems that the matter of steward selection and compensation has been a cause of concern nationally for some time. Because of a variety of considerations, some clearly political and some representing a lack of racing expertise on the part of track managements around the country, there are people in the stewards’ stands who are not fully qualified either in background or temperament.”

When Ferrara, a former FBI man and racing investigator for the state, was named a New York steward several years ago, some people wondered about his qualifications to referee races.

“He was a guy who liked to bet a little bit before he got into racing,” another former FBI man said. “But does that make him any different than a lot of other guys?”

There are several theories as to why Ferrara and the two other stewards mistook Allumeuse for Syntonic, the horse who actually committed the foul, although none of the theories explain the egregious error:

--Both horses wore shadow rolls. It is not uncommon, however, for more than one horse in a race to wear a shadow roll, a fleecy noseband designed to block a horse’s eyes from distractions on the track.

--In discussing the race before they made their decision, the stewards reportedly kept referring to Syntonic as the lead horse. The number they took down was the number of the lead horse, all right, only that horse was no longer Syntonic, it was Allumeuse, who had overtaken Syntonic in the stretch.

--The stewards acted too quickly after the race. It took them only two or three minutes to arrive at their decision.

--The stewards rejected the attempts by the two jockeys, Jose Santos and Jerry Bailey, to tell them they were erring. Santos rode Allumeuse and Bailey was the rider on Fasta Dancer, the filly who was fouled by Syntonic.

--The stewards may have been victimized by the location of their stand at Saratoga, which is practically in the middle of the crowd and is not as high as booths at many other tracks.

No matter what the reason or reasons for the mistake, Saratoga--no more than any other track--wasn’t in a position to pay out an extra $1 million to compensate the wronged bettors. A public hanging of Ferrara probably wouldn’t have assuaged anybody, either.

Ferrara, who is bearing an undue burden for the blame because the other stewards were in a position to outvote him on any decision, likely would have been fired, but he reportedly is only months away from qualifying for a state pension. One of the other stewards was fined, and the remaining steward probably will be, too.

Horse Racing Notes Two days after the Allumeuse affair, trainer John Gosden, who is based at Del Mar, was at Saratoga to saddle a horse. “We won the race, but right away they disqualified my horse and gave the win to a horse trained by (Bobby) Frankel,” Gosden said. “You could tell that everybody was still very nervous up there.” . . . As if the furor over the Saratoga stewards’ incident wasn’t enough, New York’s state racing authorities must now try to find out why its testing laboratory first said that Lashkari raced with an illegal medication in last year’s Breeders’ Cup, then changed its mind Tuesday. Lashkari, fourth in the $2-million Breeders’ Cup Turf Stakes at Aqueduct, now will receive $140,000 that had been held in escrow, and his stablemate, Shernazar, will get $20,000 for running sixth. Although Shernazar wasn’t under suspicion, he would have also been disqualified, according to racing rules. The reversal of the Lashkari disqualification means the loss of $100,000 to the owners of Greinton--Mary Bradley of Santa Monica, Howell Wynne of Dallas and trainer Charlie Whittingham. Greinton would have been moved up from seventh to fifth if both Lashkari and Shernazar had been disqualified. . . . At a hearing before three members of the Minnesota State Racing Commission Wednesday at Canterbury Downs, an attorney for jockey Kenny Black argued that his client shouldn’t be given a 30-day suspension for refusing a drug test. The entire nine-member board will rule on a recommendation from the panel next week. When Black was relicensed in California this year after having had drug problems, he reportedly signed a statement that said he would leave racing for life if he ever appeared under the influence of drugs again.