Call Is Dead Wrong : Heated Dispute Is Avoided After Steward’s Slip of Tongue

When the phone in the track announcer’s booth rings after a close finish at Santa Anita, Trevor Denman knows that the stewards are calling to tell him that there has been a dead heat.

If there is no dead heat, there is no phone call. When the numbers of the first four finishers light up the tote board, Denman announces them to the crowd as he sees them for the first time.

On Saturday, about seven minutes after the $264,800 Goodwood Handicap, the phone at Denman’s right hand rang. “Dead heat, (Nos.) 4 and 6,” steward Pete Pedersen said.

In a matter of seconds, Denman acknowledged what he heard, hung up the phone and announced to the crowd that The Prime Minister and Marquetry had dead-heated for the victory in the Goodwood.

The phone rang again. It was Pedersen, telling Denman that the correct result was No. 4 (The Prime Minister) winning and No. 6 (Marquetry) finishing second.

Denman stepped to the microphone and announced the correction, no more than 30 seconds after the first announcement. “Then I stepped back from this glass,” Denman said Sunday. “I thought they might try to throw things at me. They created quite a stir.”

Pedersen has accepted responsibility for the error. “The words ‘dead heat’ inadvertently slipped out,” he said.

Denman, who has called thousands of races, said that he has never experienced a similar mix-up.

“The mutuel department and the placing judges were on the phone at the same time,” he said. “I’m surprised that someone didn’t jump in when they heard dead heat mentioned.”

As it turned out, no one was affected. Had the race actually been a dead heat and the result been announced otherwise, then Santa Anita could have had a problem, because fans might have ripped up tickets and thrown them away. With a dead heat, fans with tickets on either horse know to keep them.