New York Bettors Knew a Sure Thing When They Saw It

For about six minutes, a group of New York racing fans in an off-track betting parlor thought they had it made.

At 4:03 p.m. EST Wednesday, the seventh race went off at Churchill Downs. But the betting windows at a New York Off-Track Betting center didn’t close. For six minutes, continuing well after the race was run, the windows stayed open and continued to take bets.

“They must have thought this was heaven--the window’s still open and the race is over,” said Churchill Downs information director John Asher. “They didn’t know what the payout was going to be, but they knew it was going to be big, because you had a $30 horse on the line.”

The winning horse, Scads, was a 14-1 shot, and the second- and third-place finishers went off at odds of at 5-1 and 6-1.

The $2 trifecta for the race paid $795.

“They didn’t bet much money, but they bet it all on the trifecta,” Asher said of the illegal wagers. “I assume there was some kind of warning system, because the OTB officials caught on before they could cash in.”

The problem started when the New York Racing Assn.’s tote system shut down Wednesday. At the NYRA’s request, Churchill Downs agreed to allow money wagered through the NYRA hub to enter the betting pool late, as long as it was placed before the race went off.

But at the New York OTB, $775 in wagers were placed late--most of them after the horses had crossed the finish line.

The wagers would resulted in a payout of $51,900. The money was never paid, Asher said, but it should have gone to other bettors around the country. The payouts were recorded before Churchill Downs learned of the problem, and the money couldn’t feasibly be rerouted to the legal winners.

In accordance with the Kentucky Rules of Racing, the $51,900 underpayment will instead be shifted into the wagering pools for the seventh race Saturday--the final day of Churchill Downs’ fall meet.