How would you like to have watched your horse cross the finish line first, be declared the winner and then have the dreaded “Inquiry” light come up on the big board. That would be a drag, right? Well, what if that horse winning the race would have won you around 1.66 Million Bucks?
15-to-1 shot Collinito led the 12th race at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida from pole to pole. Only in the closing moments of the race was he actually threatened, only to pull away and cross the finish line first clearly.
However, the Inquiry light did come on and in the end Collinito was charged with ‘impeding the progress’ of the 39-to-1 shot, Strategic Keeper who held on to place behind Collinito.
The announcement was made that the track stewards, the onsite horse racing rules officials, were conducting an inquiry to study the stretch battle between Collinito and Strategic Keeper. They ultimately took down Collinito as the winner and replaced him with Strategic Keeper, confirming the ‘impeding progress’ call.
The reason that this call has drawn so much attention is the amount of money involved and the possibility that everything was not exactly on the up and up at Gulfstream Park that day. However, the track stewards do indeed have the power to disqualify a winner if the horse was deemed to have won unfairly.
It all comes down to Gulfstream’s big “Rainbow 6” wager and if Collinito had been declared the winner of the 12th race it would have triggered a payoff, based on a 20 cent minimum wager, that pays out when just one ticket has the winners in six consecutive races designated by the track. If multiple tickets have 6 winners, or if on one picks six, 30% of the day’s ‘Pick 6’ wagers carry over to the next racing day, with the other 70% paid out in consolation tickets. That builds up!
Gulfstream Park is a popular racetrack located midway between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale of Florida’s South Atlantic coast. On that particular day the tracked had picked the final races of the day 7-12 for the day’s ‘Rainbow 6’ wagering offering.
The impeding call is difficult to verify, even when reviewing the tape of the race, so naturally there has arisen quite a bit of controversy over what some are calling ‘one of the most controversial steward’s decisions in recent memory’ and considering what was at stake…
Andy Beyer of the DRF wrote, “With so many players chasing a potential life changing payoff, Gulfstream profits every day the jackpot remains in play”.
