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I am talking about the old days here, before digital. The judges would work from a negative if possible but when a print was called for, you knew it was really tight.
For me, the most memorable was Oh so Sharp getting up to win the 1000gns in 1985. Nobody really thought she had won and if you had backed her for the race you couldn't hedge on the photo because the other two in it were so tight. The wait was nerve jangling but she had got up to net me just under £500. Great times.
My worst wait, thought was at Ascot earlier in the 1980s. It was an Amateur jocks race and the horse I had supported to clear about £350 went past with another. The other was marginal favourite in the photo betting but I was too tight to hedge. Judge called for a print and after almost ten minutes of agony, I had been beaten a short head (of course, the minimum distance then). I was all but physically sick into one of the Ascot waste bins!
Today with technology there is no wait and the game has probably lost a tiny something as a result.
Any other photo finish tales out there?
For me, the most memorable was Oh so Sharp getting up to win the 1000gns in 1985. Nobody really thought she had won and if you had backed her for the race you couldn't hedge on the photo because the other two in it were so tight. The wait was nerve jangling but she had got up to net me just under £500. Great times.
My worst wait, thought was at Ascot earlier in the 1980s. It was an Amateur jocks race and the horse I had supported to clear about £350 went past with another. The other was marginal favourite in the photo betting but I was too tight to hedge. Judge called for a print and after almost ten minutes of agony, I had been beaten a short head (of course, the minimum distance then). I was all but physically sick into one of the Ascot waste bins!
Today with technology there is no wait and the game has probably lost a tiny something as a result.
Any other photo finish tales out there?
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Monksfield and Night Nurse dead heating in the Aintree hurdle late 70s.
I seem to remember Night Nurse was giving 7lb away. Best hurdler I have ever seen and possibly best of all time. Best race I have ever watched too. |
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Stickels in a pickle in Lingfield photo finish ****-up
Tue 7 Mar 2006 at 00:11 JUDGE Jane Stickels called the wrong result at Lingfield Park yesterday, causing mayhem and costing the betting industry an estimated £7 million as many bookmakers found themselves obliged to pay out on two 'winners' in the same race. It was the fifth time Stickels had made headlines for high-profile '****-ups' in the past 12 years and there were immediate calls for her resignation. I was a victim of 2 of her wrong calls. At Kempton Park the horse I backed was in a photo finish and looked beat, I then backed the other horse at a very short price in the photo only for Stickles to call a dead heat. The result was overturned later and the horse that looked a clear winner in the photo was awarded the race. |
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the next race not too shabby either barstool has to be best day's NH racing ever...pity I didnt go.
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2006 Nassau Stakes... Ouija Board / Alexander Goldrun.. a colossal finish from both fillies.
It took about 15 minutes for the result. You can see a relieved Dettori on this video. Whole race. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh1tfThpB5Y |
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1998 Arkle
Champleve (McCoy) Hill Society (Dunwoody) took 15 minutes and 2 B&H nervously inhaled. I was on the right end of the result, and it REALLY mattered at the time. Still can’t split ‘em when I see the print! |
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Me too howard, watched it on tv.
Have a large signed print of Red Rum over my desk by AJ Gadd. |
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Saxon...great shout......was it a last penny in pocket type scenario or was it getting some lost monies back......those types of wins always last long in the memory
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Get the B+H back out saxon
 https://youtu.be/L5Zz11XHmRo?si=0VZt1Sj-kgml4C9- |
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That would be mine saxon nothing to do with betting but whilst sitting up on level 3 at Cheltenham in the annual members area the tight finish and long photo which felt longer than 15 minutes I got talking to a fellow member about which had won ,we had a friendly pint on it,and from that day on for the best part of 20 years we always had a drink together each day of the festival,sadly he passed away tony he was called a real nice lad.
Just checked the winning distance it was a short head it must have been in the days before a nose was used. |
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Other winners that day French ballerina sadly killed at royal ascot,istabraq won his first champion hurdle,and the unforgettable unsinkable boxer .
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One that sticks out was the Whitbread Gold Cup finish which was a three way photo with the 4th barely a length behind , not a nail biter after crossing the line but a great finish all the same.
https://www.facebook.com/racingtv/videos/1984-whitbread-gold-cup-special-cargo/333497332103132/ Suppose the two memory bank questions are name the 4 horses in question and what price do you think the winner would have been on here coming to the last. |
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Special cargo diamond edge lettoch and can’t remember the other one
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I know you don't do links Jim.....
Top weight Diamond Edge made much of the running, jumping superbly, but Plundering disputed the lead three out with Lettoch, who had been stopped in his tracks by a fallen rival early on and had taken a long time to get back into the firing line. Special Cargo seemed to be fighting a losing battle under hard driving in sixth place, having dropped back after being up with the pace most of the way. Plundering and Lettoch were still neck-and-neck at the last with Diamond Edge two lengths back in third and Special Cargo staying on in fourth a similar distance further behind. Plundering, Lettoch and Diamond Edge, staging a rally reminiscent of his splendid effort in 1981, each showed narrowly ahead on the flat before Special Cargo, battling on gamely up Sandown’s famous hill, came very late on the scene to snatch the race on the line. After travelling more than three and a half miles and crossing twenty-four fences Special Cargo, Lettoch and Diamond Edge were separated by short heads, with fourth-placed Plundering only a length and a half away. Special Cargo gave the Queen Mother one of her most important victories as an owner and both she and Special Cargo received a tremendous reception in the winner’s circle.’ |
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Of course plundering I think raced in pink colours.
Thanks for posting Hayden as you rightly say I can’t do links. |
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Smartie.
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i had 5 grand on a horse called North Ocean....Cumani/Cochrane.....think it was Yarmouth....got 2.5k at price 3/1, rest at SP which was also 3/1.....No pictures, so on the blower, Prince Orac, Cauthen in a photo that took an eternity, seemed like 10 minutes, i lost, has to be the sorest loss of my life.
they were on opposite sides of the track , North Ocean drifted across the track final furlong costing him the race....I remember it like it was yesterday. think Prince Orac was trained by Clive Brittain, and Cauthen my favourite jockey of all time too. year was 1986 |
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One So Wonderful winning the Juddmonte International at York from Faithful Son and Chester House. I had backed OSW as I had in every race she ran in and was convinced that she was only third as they passed the line but Pat Eddery had got her head in front on the post. She was never much good until the second half of the year. A great product of Meon Valley Stud by Nashwan out of Someone Special by Habitat.
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Marvellous race sageform
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Was on Direct Route in the 2000 Chmpn Chse.Thought he'd won in real time.
McCoy! |
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I'd backed Secreto for the Derby to win a grand and was there on the day in 84. Had a couple of early winners and backed him to win another monkey. It was the motionless Eddery on El Gran Senor cruising to the final furlong and Christy Roche hammering his mount back up on the line. I dashed into the bar and asked the nearest guy what he reckoned. "The bastard got back up," he said. Long wait for the result AND an objection but what a result! Best days racing ever.
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sageform...Eddery used the whip twenty-eight times in that race and this, I am reliably informed, was the catalyst for the UK racing authorities to start taking whip usage seriously before the animal rights people enlisted the general public in their cause.
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just remembered another loser where i thought i won.....Strands of Gold in the 3 mile novice at Cheltenham, may have been called the sun alliance back then.....cross master at 20s beat it in a photo finish....Strands of Gold would have been 1.20 on here in the photo finish imo
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Was on Direct Route in the 2000 Chmpn Chse.Thought he'd won in real time.
i watched that recently and i still think he won, i was on the 3rd so fecked anyhow |
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AP was brilliant on Edredon Bleu tbf , horse needed a target to aim at until virtually on the line and he rode it to perfection
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yes, there's something about 2m chasers, so many great ones and there were some proper stars in that era
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Yes remember that meeting well elise , if memory correct had an e/way L15 across the meeting , Edredon Bleu , Tietuchev , Looks Like Trouble and the one that let me down was the first one in the opening race of the day , none other than Best Mate who was pipped by Sausolito Boy.
Took prices and got around £5k but would have been over £60k , happy days all the same  |
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i still have somewhere, one of the bookie board prices sheets for that 2000 QM , think I've also got the Ch hurdle from the same year as well
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The 1998 Gordon Stakes was a photo finish,I was pretty sure Nedawi had not been beaten and he had been hampered so would get the race in the stewards room if a dead heat. I had a £1,000 at 1/2.The result was a dead heat and after the stewards enquiry the result stood. I lost £250 on the race. Both horses were owned by the Maktoums and I am sure the dead heat suited the owners so they did not try to get the result changed.
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Edredron Bleu led for most of that race,Direct Route took it up about 100yrds out.
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Yes AP was pleased when DR headed it albeit marginally on the run in he said after the race , desperate finish though just watched the race again for the first time in over 10 years and sort of how i remember it bu 25yrs is a long time...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faj7vYEQty4 |