Cheltenham last race in doubt

they have better cameras on the finish than a few years ago but even so if this is a photo you need to be sure they will call it

Reflective armbands handed out.

Miners helmet lights fitted !

Worth the wait

looks clear but the market is spooked

Turned out to be a great race but great shame to run it in those conditions.

Jim mugged if dh

image looks iffy then

Nothing untoward happened. Yet RTV seem gutted as to their panic stations approach to it.

1.5x

the bleating is tiresome.

not sure why the people putting their lives on the line on the course should be involved

Looked fairly clear nose and the owners are so lucky that it was inevitable. Managed to make a small profit by backing Kripticjim in the photo as Taurus was my main bet.

With Guy Lewis as judge you were fortunate,angela

The clueless Lewis gave a dead heat when the winner had won by a neck in the Bumper here

Skydia is on a rant now

She is insufferable

cant stand her

She gets away with murder,Cider

clerk of the course, hole a foot deep.

Why does he not tell her to shut up instead of pandering to her rant?

Lydia going on like a prosecution barister, ffs shut up!

he is being diplomatic, but part of the job

lydias trying her best

Very trying

Skydia has a deluded view of her importance.

Dixon, "prob most people won't care", no they don't apart from the owners, trainers, jocks, stable staff, punters and the crowd on course who wanted them to divert which they did without incident. Only racing tv didn't want it to go and Hendo who was having an awful day.

Seen the print,angela

Dan Barber at least had the grace to be embarassed by Lydia at the end.

To look embarassed

She really needs to be straightened out.

I thought that she asked the sort of questions that the usual critics would ask and he gave very fair answers apart from the depth of the hole! All's well that ends well. At least the Irish pair were well beaten. Kripticjim cost £30,000 so has already won more than that. Brocade rarely pay more than 50k and have had Native River win a Gold Cup and now, Alexei, Sober Glory, Gentleman Toboot and American Land this season so far. £300k in winnings since May.

Cheltenham must be acutely aware no matter what spin they put on this a number of deaths at the big meeting might mean the end as we know it and the Gino situation today was not good and that last race doodle in the dark was a mess.

She's thrilled she thinks she obtained a gotcha lol

Now Mellish repeating her rant. Bloke she was having a go at did extremely well imo.

It's not balanced sage. She's the reason why Murphy no longer speaks to RTV. She tries to browbeat people into doing what she thinks is right. ie she wanted him to be sacked by Balding.

Other than asking her if she thinks that she runs racing there,doorman

I mean obviously they are going to look more closely at the course before the festival than when trying to get the last race on, with the dark coming imminently.

Lydia, that's not a gotcha. Sorry to disappoint.

Lydia was the only shining light today.

A Champagne Socialist who has been allowed to get away with it for far too long

Racing Post staff are worried about their jobs if NH racing has another big PR disaster and this anti horses/anti gambling Government ban it. Racing is all about taking risks Lydia.

NH racing will be gone in twenty years,enjoy the moment…

I sincerely hope that you will begone much sooner

I thought we should all view the final photo print.

I assumed the judge had gone off the TV pictures, where the far side had clearly won. But then someone has drawn lines on this?

https://media.britishhorseracing.com/images/photofinish/hireswatermark/2026_7755_0_34139.jpg
.

Dunkers thinks the whole world is watching the last at Cheltenham.

I saw a race where the ambulance was coming around the track in the opposite direction of the race, on the racing rail. I think racing survived, as well as the participants, luckily

If that's the image they called the result from, that's scandalous.

The original will be better. Presumably

You'd hope so! Can't see either horse has reached the second 'line'.

Thought it was pretty clear on the screen who had won

As was the Bumper where Lewis called a dead heat(which was won by a neck),MJK.
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
To those that backed it,you got away with one

Cheltenham defend controversial decision to run finale | Full Race | 2026 | Racing TV


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV_FViACHUA

Would be a stiff 5F up that hill should NH be gone.

Jan 24, 2026 -- 5:54PM, uptheirons wrote:

As was the Bumper where Lewis called a dead heat(which was won by a neck),MJK.Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.To those that backed it,you got away with one

Just checked out the replay as that was before my time. A shocking decision!

Guy has been known to imbibe,Jamee.
I was on the losing end on that Bumper and dared not play today

Comedy gold….

You should have been strangled at birth,Aceform.
What was funny?

Horse racing industry as a whole Albert Jnr…..Comedy gold.I thought you were quick…..

Compared to you I am lightspeed

Premier league demand to know why racing can get fantastic accurate pictures for their photo finnishes,yet they struggle with Bournemouth offsides.

The BHA say,try turning the floodlights off,then just guess it like we did,go to pools panel result.

I reckon in the future ,technology might be able to solve this,I ve heard they’re trying to set up a system where messages can be sent across from miles away,mr morse told me,I’ve got a code, a way of sending messages,,by tapping impulses down a phone wire.

So people could stand in a line with winning posts or offsides,could then send a  morse code back,to get the best desicion.

I doubt it,but who knows what the future holds.

if that's the best print available its a DH imo

interestingly the BHA site has kripticjim 5m 09.27s, taurus bay 5m 09.27s
winning dist a sh hd which would be 0.02-0.03s difference between 1st & 2nd so that doesn't tally

Jan 24, 2026 -- 4:17PM, ashleigh wrote:

horses in the cleeve hurdle ran right through the patch with the hole.

its probably on mainstream news if the worst happened

On the sporting life replay it looks clear cut no.5 but when you see the freeze frame….mmm.

The bookie in the bar in teneriefe was not pleased I had  a 20 on the winner lol

must be bookies in every bar in Tenerife LOL

They should have kitted out the runners with lights, like they do in moonlight barrel racing
https://www.facebook.com/4stridesequestrian/videos/another-first-for-the-uk-and-4-strides-barrel-racing-demonstration-team-moonligh/1207850867770691/

This would solve the problem of low sun fences.

Why not have floodlights either side of the winning post to illuminate the area covered by the camera. Not needed all that often but not a huge expense and would remove any doubts. The photo was not clear enough to judge but the video was fine. I never thought there was any doubt and was amazed to be able to hedge my original bet on the second horse after the race was finished.

You were able to do so because the judge made a horrendous mistake in a photo there in a Bumper a while back in similar conditions,sageform

Even Ben Pauling said the result was very clear on the video!

the video where you can't see the near side mirror?

Jan 24, 2026 -- 8:03PM, wondersobright wrote:

interestingly the BHA site has kripticjim 5m 09.27s, taurus bay 5m 09.27swinning dist a sh hd which would be 0.02-0.03s difference between 1st & 2nd so that doesn't tally

and now the BHA site has kripticjim 5m 04.09s, taurus bay 5m 09.27s, fortune timmy 5m 04.59s

so they've been altered & even stevie wonder could work out why they can't be right

looks to me like there's some bad covering up taking place

nothing like a good old fiddle as the bishop said to the actress.

i thort on RTV the far side had 100% won.

exact same happened couple yr ago same circumstances,last at chelt on a sat..far side clearly had won on RTV and after 20 mins decided as the judge was unable to asertain the winner a DH wa sgiven..this time they can decide..

#WALOFS

[   This image is no longer available.   ]

Thanks Rico. The only doubt was whether the camera was on the line.

needed the flash on.

a line has 2 end points on RTV pictures I see only 1 ie the mirror on chase track far rail

strangely the official print now removed from BHA site.

yes I noticed that too

and the times have been doctored

I think far side prob won but near side of photo finish equipment is slightly to the left of the middle of the gap in rail ie 1 frame further back its a closer than that
either way its a photo needed & because photo not clear enough it should be DH imo
and the times clocked were identical for 1st & 2nd when initially uploaded on sat

*if near side of photo finish equipment

I laid far side in the photo betting at 1.07 and have no issue with the result. It drifted once the market realised that photo issues could result in a default DH. There is most likely a clearer image that can't be uploaded as it couldn't be called from the one that was. But it was the correct result.

they can't even publish correct times that horses have run & distances between horses
only a photo print that looks like its on the dark side of the moon & everything judged off TV pictures

so you can't have confidence in the result for all it was prob correct simply isn't good enough

you can buy a night vision camera that can see lions in kenya 100yds away perfectly in darkness..2026 and BHA using outdated rubbish..a pathetic outfit.

If it was very close, I'd be like yeah, worth spending time on. In the event it wasn't and I doubt anyone genuinely feels the incorrect result was called. Perhaps the judge should have called it live. Bad images in poor light are nothing new, in the UK at least. Our technology appears to lagging be well behind what is achievable nowadays.

Jan 26, 2026 -- 2:50PM, Rico-Dangleflaps wrote:

you can buy a night vision camera that can see lions in kenya 100yds away perfectly in darkness..2026 and BHA using outdated rubbish..a pathetic outfit.

yep truly awful

In a statement issued on Monday evening Clerk of the Course Jon Pullin said: “Over the past 48 hours, an investigation has been underway to determine the cause of the hole that appeared in the track ahead of our final race on Saturday.


“Working closely with external drainage specialists, we have identified that the most likely cause was a broken drain located directly beneath the hole. We will now carry out further investigative work as well as conducting precautionary checks, alongside our standard pre-Festival course preparations."

he also said the hole was a foot deep

Footage online with a guy putting his arm down the hole, took his whole arm easily.

he cud av bin a thalidomide.

If they can light the finishes on the AW at night it is surely a routine change to have lighting on all finishes when there is any risk of poor images. They will probably tell us that it might spook the horses but the idea of night vision is a good one. Plenty of solutions but a lack of decision makers.

BHA using outdated rubbish..a pathetic outfit.

another pathetic print from newcastle from the clowns that run racing.

Need a few old flash bulbs.

just embarrassing innit.