Dead Heat

Financier and Vote Yes for Love provided a thrilling finish to Wednesday's third race at Laurel Park, hitting the wire together in a dead heat. Vote Yes for Love, who was winless in nine previous starts, appeared to be the winner of the $10,000 maiden claimer at the sixteenth pole, but Financier loomed on the outside and got a nose in front a few strides before the finish line. Then it turned into a bob of heads with the duo crossing the line simultaneously. Vote Yes for Love, a 3-year-old son of Not For Love trained by Yolonda King and ridden by Xavier Perez, paid $3.40 to win. Financier paid $2.20 as the 7-10 betting favorite.

In a contest with national significance, longtime Republican Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett and Democrat John Delaney are running neck and neck in the race to represent Western Maryland's 6th Congressional District, a new poll shows. Forty-two percent of likely voters said they intend to support Delaney, a Potomac financier making his first run for political office. Bartlett, a 20-year incumbent who lives in Buckeystown, was the choice of 41 percent of likely voters surveyed. One in 10 respondents said they are undecided and 6 percent refused to say whom they will support.

Et cetera 'Chief,' 'Raven' in dead heat at Laurel Park Milwaukee Chief and Arctic Raven hit the wire together in a dead heat Friday in the seventh race at Laurel Park. Milwaukee Chief appeared to be the winner of the $13,000 claimer after gaining the lead late, but Arctic Raven loomed on the outside and closed determinedly and was up at the wire as the duo crossed the line simultaneously. Let Me Be Frank was just a nose behind the winners in third.

Horse racing Laurel Park race features rare double dead heat The seventh race at Laurel Park went down to the wire Monday afternoon as four horses arrived at the finish line together, resulting in a dead heat for first and a dead heat for third. The one-mile turf race for was for optional claiming runners. The final charge to the finish line included 21-1 shot Rockaby Bay and Masterel, who tied for the win, and Elkhorn Creek and Colonel Bill, who tied for third, a neck behind the winners.

Horse racing Alpha, Golden Ticket in Travers dead heat In an electrifying finish, favored Alpha came back to hit the wire alongside 33-1 shot Golden Ticket on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., resulting in the first dead heat in the Grade I, $1 million Travers since 1874. Seemingly beaten as Golden Ticket began edging away inside the eighth pole, Alpha dug in through the final yards and, with his last lunge, hit the finish line in tandem with Golden Ticket.

Horse racing Laurel Park race features rare double dead heat The seventh race at Laurel Park went down to the wire Monday afternoon as four horses arrived at the finish line together, resulting in a dead heat for first and a dead heat for third. The one-mile turf race for was for optional claiming runners. The final charge to the finish line included 21-1 shot Rockaby Bay and Masterel, who tied for the win, and Elkhorn Creek and Colonel Bill, who tied for third, a neck behind the winners.

It was strictly sibling revelry at the 111th running of the Maryland Hunt Cup yesterday in Glyndon. In his first trip around the demanding four-mile course, Stewart Strawbridge impressively guided The Bruce to a three-length victory for the trainer, half-sister Sanna Hendriks, who was so thrilled she fumbled the trophy on the winner's stand after the race. Owned by Strawbridge and bred in New Zealand, The Bruce basically accomplished the chore by running on the front end, several times turning back challengers and finishing strongly to beat defending champion Bug River and Lear Charm, who wound up in a dead heat for second.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, continuing a steep slide from the heights in public opinion polls, would find himself in a dead heat if he were running for re-election today against an unnamed Democratic candidate, according to a new nationwide pollHowever, in a race against Gov. Mario M. Cuomo of New York, the Democrat most preferred by members of his own party, Bush still wins handily. Nonetheless, the new poll results reflect a significant erosion of the president's standing among voters -- apparently as a result of growing concern over his handling of the nation's troubled economy.

The presidential campaign entered September rife with negativity, as the Republican National Committee launched a long-awaited assault on Democrat Al Gore's honesty and the major-party candidates strafed the countryside with increasingly vitriolic exchanges. An RNC ad - due to begin running today in 16 states - accuses Gore of perpetually "reinventing" himself and spotlights his controversial 1996 fund-raising visit to a Southern California Buddhist temple. The ad, approved by the Bush campaign, coincides with a sharply hostile turn in the tone adopted by the Republican and Democratic tickets.

A surge of support from women, African-Americans and other traditional Democratic voters has given Gov. Parris N. Glendening a modest lead over Republican Ellen R. Sauerbrey with a week remaining before Tuesday's election, a new poll has found.Locked in a statistical tie three weeks ago, Glendening now leads Sauerbrey among likely voters 52 percent to 44 percent, with 4 percent undecided, according to a poll done for The Sun and other news organizations.Among voters considered the most certain to cast ballots, Glendening holds a smaller lead of 50 percent to 46 percent for Sauerbrey.

Horse racing Alpha, Golden Ticket in Travers dead heat In an electrifying finish, favored Alpha came back to hit the wire alongside 33-1 shot Golden Ticket on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., resulting in the first dead heat in the Grade I, $1 million Travers since 1874. Seemingly beaten as Golden Ticket began edging away inside the eighth pole, Alpha dug in through the final yards and, with his last lunge, hit the finish line in tandem with Golden Ticket.

Gov. Martin O'Malley, continuing to build on his high national profile as head of the Democratic Governors Association, will travel to Wisconsin Thursday to campaign for the challenger in the effort to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Colm O'Comartun, executive director of the DGA, said O'Malley will make a one-day trip to the Badger State to support Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in the hard-fought contest. O'Malley will follow that trip with a three-state swing through New England.

Et cetera 'Chief,' 'Raven' in dead heat at Laurel Park Milwaukee Chief and Arctic Raven hit the wire together in a dead heat Friday in the seventh race at Laurel Park. Milwaukee Chief appeared to be the winner of the $13,000 claimer after gaining the lead late, but Arctic Raven loomed on the outside and closed determinedly and was up at the wire as the duo crossed the line simultaneously. Let Me Be Frank was just a nose behind the winners in third.

Financier and Vote Yes for Love provided a thrilling finish to Wednesday's third race at Laurel Park, hitting the wire together in a dead heat. Vote Yes for Love, who was winless in nine previous starts, appeared to be the winner of the $10,000 maiden claimer at the sixteenth pole, but Financier loomed on the outside and got a nose in front a few strides before the finish line. Then it turned into a bob of heads with the duo crossing the line simultaneously. Vote Yes for Love, a 3-year-old son of Not For Love trained by Yolonda King and ridden by Xavier Perez, paid $3.40 to win. Financier paid $2.20 as the 7-10 betting favorite.

With tens of thousands of ballots yet to be counted, the bitterly fought House race between Democrat Frank M. Kratovil Jr. and Republican Andy Harris is unlikely to be settled before the end of next week, state officials said yesterday. Kratovil, the state's attorney for Queen Anne's County, led Harris, a state senator from Cockeysville, by fewer than 1,000 of the more than 329,000 votes cast Tuesday in the contest for the seat now held by longtime Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest. The tally doesn't include the more than 25,000 absentee ballots that elections officials are to begin counting today.

It was strictly sibling revelry at the 111th running of the Maryland Hunt Cup yesterday in Glyndon. In his first trip around the demanding four-mile course, Stewart Strawbridge impressively guided The Bruce to a three-length victory for the trainer, half-sister Sanna Hendriks, who was so thrilled she fumbled the trophy on the winner's stand after the race. Owned by Strawbridge and bred in New Zealand, The Bruce basically accomplished the chore by running on the front end, several times turning back challengers and finishing strongly to beat defending champion Bug River and Lear Charm, who wound up in a dead heat for second.

WASHINGTON -- The Los Angeles riots have sharply reduced support for President Bush, according to a new nationwide poll that shows him drawing only 33 percent of the vote in a three-man trial run, locked in a virtual dead heat with Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and Texas billionaire Ross Perot.Mr. Clinton and Mr. Perot each drew 30 percent of the vote in the Times Mirror poll, which was released yesterday. The survey of 1,301 respondents, conducted Wednesday -- the day the riots erupted -- through Sunday, has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.

WASHINGTON - President Bush's Iraq policy has endured one setback after another: A failure to find weapons of mass destruction. An insurgency that has killed more and more Americans. Explosive allegations of abuse and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners. In response, his approval ratings have slipped, hitting their lowest point ever in some polls. But while more voters are holding the president accountable for what they view as failures in Iraq, they seem far from ready to abandon him in his bid for re-election.

Governor's race a dead heat Less than a week before Election Day, the Maryland governor's race was a dead heat, as Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s attacks on Mayor Martin O'Malley's record on crime and schools have apparently eroded the Democrat's support in the Baltimore suburbs, a new poll showed. Court rules for public review Maryland's highest court ruled that the agency overseeing Baltimore's economic development must open its meetings and its paperwork for public review.

Columbia, Mo. -- It's twilight outside the Republican headquarters housed in a strip mall here, and Sen. Jim Talent, his navy blazer slightly rumpled from a day of campaigning, is trying to sound optimistic. "If we finish this race strong, you are going to re-elect yourself a United States senator!" he tells a roomful of supporters, raising his voice slightly for emphasis but keeping his hands sedately in the pockets of his tan chinos. If Talent looks and sounds doubtful, he has good reason.