Who won?
 

Who won? Click to zoom in.

Outside, by half a nostril!

That was today's R5. at Evangeline Downs.
While watching the race, I thought that #6 Kiki Kat won easily, but the stewards called it a dead heat with Rockett Magic.
So, it's a dead heat.

I could see that being the call...

Evangeline Downs. No need to go further...

Dead heat is the correct answer!

You can't go by that photo, the stewards have much better quality I would hope.

It looks like a old Polaroid.

Is that the Songbird photo? ;)

Photo finishes posted online are compressed as I understand it.

I was literally on the finish line at the rail for that race. I was 100% sure (maybe wishful thinking since I bet her) that Beholder won.

It was such a great race by both horses I still get goosebumps when I watch it. Songbird developed less than you would hope from 2-3 and then tailed off later, but what a race!

Evangeline are dead-heat happy! That's 3 in 3 days so far.

Those are not the images the Stewards see.
From my understanding, photographic equipment used to record finishes uses a 10k frame per second(FPS) camera which is also High Definition and digitized.

Worth noting that Collmus, who gets a booth very close to the finish for the BC, called it definitively as Beholder. He had no doubt.

Decades ago when I worked as a placing judge, I would insist on splitting incredibly tight finishes simply to counter-act my overly conservative fellow judges who considered dead-heat the "safe call." Our photo guy often sided with them by "burying" the lead nostril just enough into the thick, superimposed "finish line" to assure the trail nose likewise appeared on the wire.

Since I had only been an official for a year, or so, my opposition to this practice drew flack from veteran coworkers. But I did put a stop to their crap. Please understand there was no crooked intent on their part. Those guys didn't bet or show favoritism. They merely sought to avoid controversy by making a call they could support with a (slightly altered) photo.

If I remember right, he told me was sweating that one after he made it.

That's interesting, although I'm not sure the two things are inconsistent. In other words, he sees it as Beholder clearly winning, but then after making the call, even though he was sure of it, he has to contemplate while that photo sign is up the possibility of looking like a doofus on national television. So he got nervous even though he called it as he saw it.

I STILL think that "The Bart" beat John Henry!::rant:

He was a bit ambiguous in his call, but I always thought Phil Georgeff thought so too.

Always interesting to hear stories from behind the scenes. :ThmbUp:

From Phil's book:

"As they hit the wire, I thought perhaps The Bart held on. A second later-my experience taught me to give the outside closing horse a nostril's edge-I felt, no, I knew John Henry had gotten up in the very last stride.

I pleaded with NBC over our communication hookup not to declare The Bart even as "unofficial" winner. "Let's not split 'em", I begged. In effect, they told me to shut up and mind my own business."