Wrong Horse Runs and Wins, Pays $222.40
The Ohio State Racing Commission and Penn National Gaming Inc., which owns Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course, are investigating a race in which the wrong horse not only ran, but won and paid $222.40.
The race in question is the ninth and final race, for $5,000 filly and mare maiden claimers, Nov. 4 at the Ohio track. The listed runner,Ruby Queen, is a 3-year-old filly owned and trained by Shane Spiess, but the actual winner is a gelding from the same barn. OSRC executive director Bill Crawford Nov. 5 said the winner was sent to the test barn after the race and was identified by the state veterinarian as the gelding Leathers Slappin, who also is trained by Speiss.
Ruby Queen had started 13 times with a second and had lost her first four races of this year by a combined 70 lengths. Leathers Slappin had won twice in 26 starts and had last raced in a $5,000 claiming event Nov. 2—two days before the race in question—at Mahoning Valley and finished fifth.
"The investigation is still going on," PNGI vice president of racing Chris McErlean said Nov. 5. "We're working with the racing commission and doing an independent (probe) ourselves to get the relevant facts and details. But it's fairly obvious a mistake was made."
McErlean said details would be provided when the investigations are completed. Crawford also said the OSRC continues to investigate.
Leathers Slappin, identified in the program as Ruby Queen, was ridden by Angel Stanley and won the six-furlong race by 7 3/4 lengths in 1:15.43 at odds of 110.20-1. Jane's Storm, at 20.10-1, finished second; the $2 exacta returned $1,832.40. The 50-cent trifecta paid $581.65 with Just Like Ashley, at 6.70-1, in third. Whimsical Nature, at 38-1, was fourth to compete a 10-cent superfecta that paid $6,467.01.
Each horse in every race is examined by the horse identifier when it arrives in the paddock.