Dead-heat drama leaves everyone perplexed

Punters were left scratching their heads after a bizarre turn of events that culminated with a dead-heat in a race at Tamworth on Monday.

Oakfield Utah ($2.15 fav), trained by Scott Singleton and ridden by Aaron Bullock, went to the line alongside Lady Billie ($3.70), trained by Annabel and Rob Archibald and ridden by Anna Roper.

Although the broadcast camera is not located directly on the finish line, the vision appeared to show the inside horse Oakfield Utah with a clear margin to the naked eye, with the caller leaning towards the race favourite.

Lady Billie was initially declared the winner when interim numbers were posted before the official result was declared a dead-heat between Lady Billie and Oakfield Utah almost 10 minutes later.

Singleton said both he and Bullock thought they had won the race outright.

Tamworth: Photo for R5 Deadheat. pic.twitter.com/79CrwQBvnO

— Racing NSW Stewards (@RNSWStewards) December 22, 2025

“I must admit, I was very surprised initially that he’d got beat,” Singelton said.

“Watching it live, to the naked eye it looked like he’d won by a good head and I wasn’t even walking down there (mounting yard) thinking I’d got beat to be honest.”

“He just looked in front.”

“Aaron Bullock certainly thought he’d won and even Anna Roper said she thought our horse had won.”

“When they put up the other number I walked back to the tie-up stalls pretty perplexed by it thinking that I couldn’t have been that wrong.”

“But they rushed back down and said it had been called a dead heat and I think Aaron had gone back in and had a look at the photo.”

“I’m still not 100% sure how it all went down.”

Concluding stages of Tamworth R5. They actually interviewed the inside horses trainer as the winner. Put up the outside horse as the actual winner of the race. Then 10 minutes later update it to a Dead Heat 🤣🤣 #TheGreatGame pic.twitter.com/yUBZOVDkdA

— John Walter (@J_Walter23) December 22, 2025

Racing NSW released a grainy photo via social media to confirm the dead-heat, although many punters suggested that image actually showed a small margin to Lady Billie.

Amazingly, the pair set a new track record for the 1000m at Tamworth of 55.23.