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Here and There on the Turf Position in Judging Finishes None but the Judges Can See the Winning Line LineOfficial Official Stands Should Be Farther Back From time to time on every race track when there comes a close finish about which many in the crowd disagree with the placing judges the deceptive angls has been dis ¬ cussed on various occasions and it has been shown that in these close finishes an alto ¬ gether different view is obtained by those in front and those behind the finishing line There have been photographs taken and ex ¬ hibited at some tracks illustrating this angle that is so deceiving There have been ef ¬ forts to take an instantaneous photograph of the horses as they reach the line of the finish In fact such a camera working automatically has been used in Australia and recently an ¬ other camera has been invented in England that proposes to take five pictures of the finish timed a few feet before the finish directly at the finish and a few feet after the horses have crossed the tine With all of these devices there will always remain a difference of opin ¬ ion about many of the close finishes The judges come in for no end of criticism that is unjust and they will always be subject to such criticism for they are the only ones directly at the finishing line lineUnquestionably Unquestionably the placing judges are right ninetynine times out of a hundred when there is a question of a close finish but it would be possible i make their duties more comfort ¬ able As the judges stand is placed on about all of the American tracks they are too close to the rail As a matter of fact most of the stands are built from the rail in This makes the judging of a close finish more difficult than would be the case with the stand ten or twelve feet back from the r L LThe The big advantage in this moving back of the stand from the rail and its moderate ele ¬ vation is forcibly brought home any time one of the contenders swerves out in the stretch to finish next to the outer rail Such a hap ¬ pening brings a call for extra care to the judges when they are right up on top of this horse Anyone who wants to find this out for himself can watch the running of a race from a position next to the rail If a horse dashes past him close to the rail from which he is watching it is so surprising that only a hazj notion is had of the deciding positions unless the horses are strung out outThe The position of the stewards stand is al ¬ ways at an elevation sufficient to enable them to have the best possible view of the running of a race as it should be and there is a reason for its being close to the rail Such a posi ¬ tion affords a chance to watch the horse in the rush through the stretch and determine whether or not there is fouling or bumping bumpingThe The deceptive angle can readily be shown but it is always forgotten when the horses are battling a finish out It is hardly possible for one on the outside to be as close as within five feet of the actual tine Even that short distance away makes a vast difference if the horses arc running far apart on the track A horse ten feet from the inner rail and another racing in the middle of the track or fifty feet from the rail in a track 100 feet wide gives i a good illustration of the angle Should these horses run a dead heat it would appear to the man who was five feet beyond the finish line that the inside horse had won by five feet To the man on the near side of the finish line it would seem that the horse in the middle of the track had won by five feet That is how then positions would measure up in com ¬ parison with a direct tine of vision This will always exist and it will account for the di ¬ fference between the watchers from the club ¬ house and those in the grandstand grandstandThe The moving back of the judges stand will not lessen the angle but it is suggested to add to their comfort and to their certainty The saving grace to the deceptive angles is that there are two of them That always gives the judges some who corroborate their placing placingIt It will be remembered that last year Mars Cassidy had his starting stand elevated con ¬ siderably in order that he would have a bet ¬ ter view of the horses in the field This was a change that gave him a much better control of both the horses and the jockeys and one that added not a little to the efficiency of his starting With the lower stand it was en ¬ tirely possible to send a field away with ons of the outside horses not ready for the start He might be straight but fighting his boy or giving some other indication that he would not leave with his opponents That might not be apparent with a low starters box but with its new elevation Cassidy has an excel ¬ lent view of every starter in the field and to say the least it adds to his comfort and con
