Consecutive Dead Heats

[Jackrabbit Hog]

Saw something Saturday I'd never seen before at Oaklawn . . . dead heats in consecutive races.  Track announcer said no one associated with the track could remember that ever happening before. 

Sad thing is, neither one helped me worth a darn. 

[kingoftherapids]

was in the winners circle for the second one! CRAZY STUFF!

[heavylifting]

So I notice that Oaklawn just lumps the winners together for purposes of the Pick-3. You got the same $42.50 for your dollar regardless which horse or horses you had in the combination.

What's up with that?

I know they don't do that in New York. Checked last year's Travers Stakes results to confirm -- Pick 3 with Alpha paid $141.50 (Travers as the 3rd leg) and $452.50 (Travers as the 2nd leg). (Payoffs to $2 by the way). Using Golden Ticket, they were $1,907 (3rd leg) and $7,342 (2nd leg).

Long story short, if they'd run the Travers at Oaklawn, you'd have gotten screwed in the P3 if you'd used Golden Ticket, but would have gotten a bonus if you'd played Alpha. Am I wrong?

[HawgWild]

Watched these replays yesterday. I don't recall seeing that before either.

[Jackrabbit Hog]

Watched these replays yesterday. I don't recall seeing that before either.

You know the track will do everything humanly possible to avoid calling dead heats.  That second one, the photo delay was a good 5-7 minutes (about twice as long as the first one).  I'll bet Larry Snyder was examining nostril hairs trying to find something that got there before the other one's did.