Dead Heat

Relax Arazi. New York won't be sending a super horse to challenge you in next month's Kentucky Derby. At least there was no star in sight at Aqueduct yesterday. In the 40th running of the Gotham Stakes - a $250,000 mile that sometimes serves as a major prep for the Derby - highly favored Lure, who was sensational in his 2-year-old debut at Belmont last year, and a little known 10-1 shot, Devil His Due, finished in a dead heat after running nose-to-nose the last half-mile. Side by side at the halfway point, the 3-year-olds set the pace for the field of eight, clocking a sensational half-mile time of 43.4 seconds.

In contrast to other recent surveys, a new poll commissioned by the Republican State Committee shows that Mitt Romney trails in the state by just 1 percentage point, party chairman Robert A. Gleason Jr. said Thursday. A number of recent public polls have shown President Obama leading in Pennsylvania by either double digits or close to it. A Muhlenberg College poll released Tuesday had Obama up by 9 points, 50-41. An Inquirer poll last week had the president up by 11 points, 50 to 39. But Gleason said his party's own polling, conducted Sept.

The race for the Republican nomination for mayor of Philadelphia remains to close to call this afternoon. With results from 57 precincts still out, Karen Brown, the party-backed candidate, leads John Featherman by only 52 votes. Brown was a Democrat recruited by the party to be its mayoral candidate. Featherman was backed by the Loyal Opposition, an insurgent group that believes the GOP has become irrelevant in Philadelphia and needs to be revived. Whoever wins is expected to fall to Mayor Nutter in November.

THE CITY'S voters, regardless of whom they support, got the best possible news in last week's Keystone Poll, co-sponsored by the Daily News, showing Mayor Street and contender Sam Katz in a dead heat. It is cause for pause and celebration when any incumbent is subject to actual scrutiny by our herd of sheepy voters. Under the city charter, it is supposed to be nearly impossible for an incumbent mayor to lose re-election. And for 50 years, it has been. But we have a real race now, something many seem a bit afraid of. My view: We can handle it. Much has been made of the race gap in the poll: 72 percent of whites favored Katz and 70 percent of blacks favored Street.

Two weeks and a lot of competition remain in the Goodwill Games, but it is doubtful that any contest will generate the drama that David Wharton and Patrick Kuehl produced yesterday at the King County Aquatics Center. Wharton, 21, a world-class swimmer from Warminster, Pa., and Kuehl, 22, his peer from Potsdam, East Germany, sustained a superb battle throughout the men's 400-meter individual medley, as the sellout crowd cheered hysterically. And in what was probably the perfect finish for a stroke-for-stroke duel waged so magnificently, the race wound up in a dead heat - the first in Wharton's competitive experience.

U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon may yet vanquish his first serious opponent since 1989, but the war in Iraq has the Delaware County Republican reeling, according to a Keystone Poll released yesterday. The 7th Congressional District race is a statistical dead heat, with 44 percent of registered voters favoring challenger Joe Sestak, a retired Navy admiral, and 43 percent backing Weldon, according to the poll results. For a 10-term incumbent to be fighting for his political life is surprising enough, but the poll's other numbers paint an even grimmer picture.

Angie Davis doesn't usually go to political rallies, and she doesn't contribute to campaigns. But here she is, in a cheering crowd of 300, a political button on her pink cotton dress as she applauds Lawton Chiles, Florida's Democratic candidate for governor. Davis gave $10 to get Chiles elected. "I have more of a feeling for him," explains the 47-year-old nurse and mother of three. "I like the fact that he's not tied in with the rich; he's not going to have any political obligations to pay back.

It used to be in Hollywood that the initials "C.B. " would call to mind the master of the sword-and-toga epic, Cecil B. DeMille. Now they summon up the words "cross between," which has become the reigning principle of American movie-making. More often than not these days, films are conceived as a hybrid species born of two (or more) previous works. Sometimes this cross-pollenation can have satisfactory results. I give you "Dirty Dancing," which is a cross between "Saturday Night Fever" and "Goodbye, Columbus.

EUGENE, Ore. - The tie for third place in the women's 100 meters at the U.S. track and field finals will be decided by a runoff Monday. Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh will race to determine the third member of the Olympic team for London, officials confirmed Sunday. Felix and Tarmoh finished in a dead heat for third in the 100 more than a week ago. Track officials had no policy in place to resolve it but devised a tiebreaker that included the options of a runoff or a coin flip. The runoff will be held at 5 p.m. local time - 8 p.m. EDT - at Hayward Field.

Democrat Michael Dukakis and Republican George Bush remain in a virtual dead heat, according to a CNN-USA Today poll of registered voters. The survey of 1,260 certain voters, released yesterday found 48 percent preferred the Republican presidential ticket compared with 46 percent who favored the Democratic slate. But the margin of error of 3 percentage points negates the GOP lead. Another poll, conducted Sept. 8-10 by the Roper Organization, showed Dukakis with a 48-40 percent lead over Bush among registered voters nationwide, with 12 percent undecided.

For African American voters in the Philadelphia region, the 2012 presidential election could hardly carry the emotional weight of four years ago. But even if this time around Barack Obama was just an incumbent seeking another term - and not a newcomer seeking to shatter a historic barrier - many saw the election as deadly serious. "People are not as rah-rah," Martin Vaughn, 55, said Tuesday afternoon outside a polling place on 52d Street in West Philadelphia. "What they are is really focused.

THE UPS AND DOWNS of the second-to-last Monday before voters go to the polls in Campaign 2012: UP - Bill Clinton: With President Obama stuck handling Hurricane Sandy, we get more Bubba. UP - Obama and Sandy: Obama gets camera time playing the role of "Leader in Chief" while dealing with a natural disaster. DOWN - Obama and Sandy: Obama loses valuable campaign time as Mitt Romney pulls into dead heat with him in latest Pew national poll. DOWN - Super PACs in Pa.: It's desperation time as Super PACs supporting both campaigns prepare to run ads in Pennsylvania.

It's time for the rematch. Alpha will face off with Golden Ticket in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby Saturday at Parx Racing after they finished in a dead heat in the Travers at Saratoga last month. "Alpha hasn't won outside New York, but the only two races were at Churchill, so hopefully he just hates Churchill," trainer Kiaran McLaughlin told drf.com. "He couldn't be doing any better. " Last time, Alpha was the 2-1 favorite while Golden Ticket was 33-1. This time, they are almost cofavorites.

In contrast to other recent surveys, a new poll commissioned by the Republican State Committee shows that Mitt Romney trails in the state by just 1 percentage point, party chairman Robert A. Gleason Jr. said Thursday. A number of recent public polls have shown President Obama leading in Pennsylvania by either double digits or close to it. A Muhlenberg College poll released Tuesday had Obama up by 9 points, 50-41. An Inquirer poll last week had the president up by 11 points, 50 to 39. But Gleason said his party's own polling, conducted Sept.

Alpha will face off with Golden Ticket in the $1 million Pennsylvania Derby on Saturday at Parx Racing in a rematch of the Travers winners, who finished in a historic dead heat. It will also be the track's biggest day of racing and a Breeders' Cup preview as the $1 million Cotillion Stakes for fillies and mares will also be contested. The races will be televised on CW57, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., including the $300,000 Gallant Bob Handicap.             $1 million Pennsylvania Derby, 11/8 miles   1. Stephanoatsee       G.Motion       S.

Alpha and long shot Golden Ticket finished in a historic dead heat for the win in the $1 million Travers Stakes on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga, N.Y. It appeared as if Golden Ticket would pull off a huge upset all by himself in the field of 11 3-year-olds. But 2-1 favorite Alpha closed strongly in the final yards and the two hit the wire together. The photo finish sign flashed on the tote board, and a few minutes later, the crowd roared when the dead- heat sign made it official.

EUGENE, Ore. - It will be remembered as the most anticipated race never run: the runoff that turned into a walk away to conclude the U.S. track trials. Jeneba Tarmoh conceded the final Olympic spot in the 100 meters rather than meet training partner Allyson Felix at the starting line on Monday to break a third-place tie. She notified USA Track and Field early in the day of her intention to withdraw from the evening race, not specifying why she was stepping aside. In an e-mail sent through her agent to USATF, Tarmoh said: "I understand that with this decision I am no longer running the 100m dash in the Olympic Games and will be an alternate for the event.

EUGENE, Ore. - The tie for third place in the women's 100 meters at the U.S. track and field finals will be decided by a runoff Monday. Allyson Felix and Jeneba Tarmoh will race to determine the third member of the Olympic team for London, officials confirmed Sunday. Felix and Tarmoh finished in a dead heat for third in the 100 more than a week ago. Track officials had no policy in place to resolve it but devised a tiebreaker that included the options of a runoff or a coin flip. The runoff will be held at 5 p.m. local time - 8 p.m. EDT - at Hayward Field.

EUGENE, Ore. - Shameka Marshall leaped her way into the USA Olympic trials women's long jump final, with one of the best performances of her life. All the Temple University assistant track coach, a former star at Rutgers, has to do now is jump even farther in the final Sunday at Hayward Field to earn a place in the top threesome going to the London Olympic Games. "Not bad," she called her 21-foot, 111/2-inch jump, which put her sixth in Friday's qualifying round at Hayward Field.

Former West Catholic High star Nicole Leach, who in 2007 took the NCAA 400-meter hurdles title for UCLA and represented the United States at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan, continued Thursday to bid for her first Olympic team berth. Running in the first of four preliminary heats of the women's 400 hurdles, Leach, 24, advanced to the semifinals in 56.71. She had missed out in the prelims of the 2008 USA trials but repeated as NCAA champion in 2009.   Worried about home For four minutes, Jenny Simpson was focused on a race and not a raging wildfire back home in Colorado.