Tote Problems Tarnish Tampa Bay Derby Card

Tote problems that were not fully explained as of 8:30 p.m. ET March 9 played havoc with the late races of the Tampa Bay Downs card Saturday, its most important race day of the year.

The Tampa Bay Derby (G3) saw wagering halted well before the race, and the track canceled the final race of the day, an allowance race on the turf for fillies and mares. Wagering payoffs from the card’s 10th race, the Florida Oaks (G3T), were delayed, with the track telling horseplayers Saturday that these payouts would not become official until March 10.

On-track fans who held winning wagers in that race were told they would need to return to Tampa Bay Downs for payment at a future date or request payment by mail.

Many bettors, except those that bet early or in multi-race exotics, were shut out of the Tampa Bay Derby. The problems left many of the track’s biggest pools, the Ultimate 6, late Pick 5, and late Pick 4 in limbo with little explanation for confused horseplayers.

The elimination of wagering on the Tampa Bay Derby and the cancellation of the final race will certainly negatively impact the track’s handle.

Tampa Bay Downs track announcer Jason Beem said on the public address system that the tote holdup was caused by an outage that affected other tracks on the East Coast. Tampa Bay Downs is a wagering partner with 1/ST Technology’s AmTote.

1/ST Racing’s Gulfstream Park was among the other tracks that also experienced some tote delays, as did sister track Santa Anita Park. The latter saw its Saturday feature race, the B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile Stakes (G1), go off 23 minutes past its scheduled post time after a tote delay in late afternoon.

Aidan Butler, president of 1/ST, did not return a telephone call requesting an interview, saying he was traveling from Tampa Bay Downs, but texted a short statement. He said 1/ST would have a more detailed statement Sunday and speak with BloodHorse then when he has more information.

“I have initiated a full-scale investigation into the loss of connectivity between AmTote and certain racetracks,” he wrote. “I do not have the final results as of yet, but it appears to be a wider-spread communication outage that took down both the primary and backup communications. This outage affected multiple telecom/internet service providers and was much broader than the racing industry.”

“Due to the ongoing delay, the status of all wagers involving the 10th (Florida Oaks), 11th (Tampa Bay Derby), and 12th races have yet to be resolved,” Tampa Bay Downs vice president of marketing and publicity Margo Flynn said Saturday evening.”The issues will be addressed (Sunday), with our first priority to pay out on all winning wagers made prior to the tote shutdown and for refunds to be made where appropriate.”