THE HRO / RACEHORSETALK COMBO – THAT PHOTO-FINISH DECISION!

By HRO/racehorsetalk | Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Every fortnight readers will be served a tasty HRO / Racehorsetalk Combo. Topics sourced from the racehorsetalk.com.au forum of the past two weeks will be expanded upon by the HRO team to give you the best combination of coverage on topical events. This coverage, courtesy of this forward-looking undertaking between two successful websites, will appear every second Wednesday on HRO making it a ‘Must-Read Midweek’ offering.

Remember the days when, after a close finish, the photo-finish print was posted in the glass covered box in different areas of the racecourse so punters could view the official outcome.

Technology has moved forward light years since then, but some practical, common sense operations have apparently been lost and sidelined with the same speed at which these advances have been made. The on-track photo-finish display is one of them.

Events at Caloundra on Sunday November 6 suggest it should be brought back with immediate effect.

Comments from racehorsetalk.com.au

DJH:
The Sunshine Coast, Race 2 (last Sunday) was the most disgraceful event I have ever experienced in my time in racing!! The steward are less than helpful in such events either. I don't mind backing a loser, I back plenty. However, if the photo is that close where no-one other than the judge thinks there is a margin it has to be a dead heat!!! It took over 30 mins to try and convince everyone there was a margin and still no-one was convinced.

Dubbledee:
Yeah, Yeah, the delay suggested it was not clear-cut.

DJH:
I spoke to a few who saw the photo and ALL said there was no margin. The stewards refused to show us the photo after being asked. The credibility in Qld racing is shot after this incident IMO.

Perhaps the significance of what happened when it was time to call the result of the second race at Coloundra last Sunday was lost because it was just a provincial meeting. Perhaps that argument is selling the Sunshine Coast Turf Club short, but the bottom line is that, while the judge’s decision is final, in this case it arguably didn’t mean it was correct.

When Jim Byrne pushed the Bryan Guy trained More Than Love alongside Craiglea Vance in the closing stages of the second race and the two runners went to the line together, everyone knew it was going to be a close call. By today’s standards the numbers took a long time to be posted … and that was the first inkling that all was not well. With the Peter Fleming trained Craiglea Vance being handed the decision, the connections of More Than Love were anxious to exercise their right to view the photo-finish.

Bryan Guy first went into the stewards’ room. He then took on the steep staircase that carries you up to the judge’s box to go and see an enlarged view of the photo, which incidentally had been posted on the television in the jockeys’ room while all this was going on. Not one of those twenty to thirty people who voiced an opinion after seeing the photo could find a margin between the runners. What further flamed feelings was the fact that, on the photo, BOTH horse’s nostrils extended beyond the line which had been drawn to denote the finish line and even the closest scrutiny could not separate them.

Guy, who would have been the first to acknowledge defeat if that was shown to be the case, returned from the tower no less wiser than when he had left to see the judge. The photo was apparently enlarged 400 times, but Guy still couldn’t find a margin. The judge could, but could not point it out successfully to anybody else. One story even tells the tale that stewards asked the judge if he was going to stand by his decision. If that is true, what was he supposed to answer?

If, as already stated, the fact that by today’s standards the numbers took a long time to be posted gave an inkling that all was not well, then the fact that runners for the third race were already at the start before an official result for race two was confirmed, some thirty-five minutes after the finish in question, made the handling of the situation all the more unsatisfactory.

The result of a photo-finish can never be allowed to slip into the realm of opinion. It has to be a definite call and, most importantly for the reputation of racing, justice has to be seen to be done. The two delays, both of significant amounts of time in their own right, suggested that there was no clear-cut call.

No clear-cut call means there was some doubt about whether there was a margin or not. That being the case a dead-heat would be the correct outcome.

Again, from racehorsetalk.com.au

JWesleyHarding
Is that photo finish print available?

We are aware of at least one punter who has requested the print from Racing Queensland, so I guess we’ll soon know the answer to that. Surely, if the outcome posted was a true result and not an opinion, it will serve everybody best interest if that is shown to be the case!

Then its’ time to bring back the on-track photo-finish display.

*In the debate on racehorsetalk.com.au the margin handed out by the judge was not the only query. Race times produced by the judge also got a serve. This aspect of racing statistics has been a cause of concern for some time and it is a separate story altogether.

HRO won’t respond at this stage with regard to the ‘made-up’ times comment on racehorsetalk.com.au beyond saying that, as a member of the media, we can vouch for the fact that the times passed on from the judge to the Press Box are often queried and, on most occasions when that query is sent back to the judge, a revised time, sometimes being as much as two seconds difference, is then posted as being the ‘correct’ time.

We do not say the judge has made-up times, but we can say there are times when you can be forgiven for thinking that might be the case.

Why not have your say? Join the debate at racehorsetalk

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