Racing history was made in August in upstate New York. Saturday afternoon at Saratoga Springs the favored Alpha and long shot Golden Ticket raced to a dead heat in the $1 million Travers Stakes.
It was nearly a triple dead heat, as Fast Falcon, last of 11 through the first six furlongs, came with a flying finish to finish third, beaten only a neck.
In the 143 runnings of the Travers, the only other recorded dead heat occurred way back in 1874 between Attila and Acrobat. In that instance, a run-off was held that was won by Attila. There would be no such resolution Saturday. Instead, there were two camps that had mixed emotions when the infield board flashed dead heat, much to the delight of the crowd of 46,528, which burst into applause.
You see, when a dead heat is called, both sides win and both sides get paid off!
While Alpha was sent off the 2-1 favorite, and expected to win, he was a length behind inside the sixteenth pole. Under a persevering Ramon Dominguez, Alpha kept coming and though his head was coming up at the wire, it landed on the line at the same time as Golden Ticket, whose head was bobbing down under jockey David Cohen. The photo indicated a tie, and we’ll take it.”
Trainer Ken McPeek said, “First I thought we won, then I thought we lost and I looked at it again – nobody could tell”.
It was a huge win for Golden Ticket considering he wasn’t even being pointed to this race. Unraced since losing an allowance race at Churchill Downs on May 5 – Kentucky Derby Day – Golden Ticket ran in the Travers only when two other races he had entered in at Saratoga didn’t fill.
Jockey David Cohen rode a great race and got through on the rail and opened up two on me. I really felt that made a difference for him to also become a winner. Either way I’m very proud of my horse. Cohen said he had “no clue” who won the race when the two horses hit the finish line. “It was obviously very tight, when they announced it was a dead heat we accepted it as a great victory for both of us,” Cohen said.
At 33-1, Golden Ticket, a son of Speightstown owned by Carter Stewart and Ken Schlenker. He returned $26.80 to win. Alpha, a son of Bernardini owned by Godolphin Racing, returned $4.10. Connections split over $400,000!
