FIRST PAST THE POST.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 29 September 1913, Page 3

FIRST PAST THE POST.

Interesting experiments^ireremade t v the .-,' photographing of finishes which hasbeen practised lor so'mavbime. past in Belgium by what is known as system, and the results; so pieced , everybody,-that it was resolved to. repeat the-experiment officially during the international week of racing, at t Madsons liafitte. This system is _ very simple, (says the Paris /correspon- • dent of. the Standard). ; Exactly one yard from the winning, post line a thin green wire is stretched across the course at the height..of>a horse's ° shoulder. The first horse" touching the wire breaks it, thus releasing an automatic interrupter acting on the shutter of an instantaneous photographic machines placed in the judge's - box in a line with the winning post line. This gives an absolutely exact image of the horses as they pass the post. This was the, first time the experiment had been made in France, although it had often been advocated ■since two years ago when the horse Laveno, in Belgium, who was placed second by the judge, ww .proved photographically, to have run a dead heat, and was eventually .< awarded half' the stakes. JR is not; intended to use the photographs as the soife means of judging, but as corroborating or correcting the judge's impressions. A case occurred only a short while ago at Tremblay, where three horses, Jarnac, Science, and. The Irishman, finished so closely that it v Twas impossible to place them without arousing the discontent of their re- ' speotire backers. However correct the verdict, hundreds of backers, differently placed necessarily disagreed, and the Sip® system would have been the only way to settle the arguments, which are still continuing, as to which horse wx>n. : This system applied to the English Derby would also have prevented a .good deal of discussion as to the placing of the horses.