WITH Sandown Park’s end-of-season jamboree firmly on the horizon, it’s pleasing to hear that changes have been made at the track to ensure the chances of a repeat of the photo-finish shambles at the track in March have been minimised, if not ruled out entirely.

On that occasion, the Racetech camera for the prestigious EBF Novice Hurdle Final was trained on the incorrect winning post which led to the wrong result being called in a tight finish.

In a particularly delicious irony, this error was corrected before the weighed-in signal was given, but only because of new checks which had been brought in last year to allow the stewards to double-check the judge’s decision.

That initiative was the result of a number of inexplicable errors made in calling photo-finishes made in the previous year or so, including multiple instances on the same day at Bangor.

There was mitigation of sorts for the Bangor problems, which involved a wide track with no reverse mirror image and an inexperienced judge, but none for the incident at Kempton in March last year where senior judge Felix Wheeler adjudged Bird Of Life to have beaten Oregon Gift in a photo which would have been called correctly by either of my children (three and five – they didn’t enjoy the technical briefing, but they now know that the nose knows).

The new system was introduced at Sandown – where else – in the summer, and was immediately tested by the self-same judge, who again called the wrong result in a relatively close finish between Vibrant Chords and Rio Ronaldo – “That one’s too easy, Daddy!” – which resulted in bookmakers paying out on the judge’s call and the corrected result.

That was, at least, a step in the right direction, with the right winner called before it was too late, although the bookmakers who pay through their noses to stand on course would probably feel otherwise.

COMPROMISED

At least on the flat track at Sandown, judges are compromised only by the tightness of photos, and that mischievous habit horses have of making their heads look like they belong to another.

The jumps course has the complication of converging run-ins from the last obstacles, which means the need for separate lines for chase and hurdle finishes, and where there is scope for a cock-up, a cock-up will most surely occur.

So it was that the judge there for the EBF Final managed to correctly read what was a head-bobbing finish, and was probably pleased with his work (Which nose is in front? Tick. Which horse does it belong to? Tick. Double check the colours with the card. Boom!) until it turned out he was looking at the wrong picture. Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

From Sandown’s next meeting, the judge will have the added benefit of knowing that the winning post for the hurdle course will be painted in a different fluorescent colour to that on the chase track, which should act as a warning if the wrong picture is presented in the future, while he/she is now required to check with the Racetech photo-finish operator (PFO) that the latter’s camera is pointing to the required location.

It’s to be hoped that the extra information which the judge is now required to remember – “Look at the lollipop; is that my lollipop?” – will not impact negatively on the ability to focus on the current mnemonic – “Which nose, whose nose? Which nose, whose nose?” – but it seems a necessary risk to take.

There are those who would argue that the solution is simpler, and that is just to do away with the extra finishing line, so there would be no need to move cameras at all.

As pointed out by Andrew Cooper, Sandown’s clerk of the course, the fact that the chase course bisects the finish at a steeper angle than the hurdles track means that using the second line for all races could see a horse on the stands rail be called the winner in a photo with one on the far side of the track despite being over a length behind in real terms. That’s the kind of photo-finish nonsense we could all do without.