As I posted before, the Photo Finish Company Employee was solely responsible for determining the margins between each horse on the film strip (which was black and white). They did so arbitrarily, and they were the only word on that subject. Up until I left racing in 2001, this was the procedure at just about every track, and probably still is in place in many smaller tracks today.

Equibase had no oversight authority to these companies (I don't know if they have any real oversight today either); the Photo Finish Company's contract was with the track ownership, and the Photo company employed a person to run their photo finish equipment. It was this Photo Finish employee which gave out the "rundown" as it's called to Equibase (and any other chart making outfit), the Horseman's Bookkeeper (for payment of purses); sometimes the Mutuels Department, and a few others. After the placing judges detrmined just the order of finish, the Photo person then assigned the margins to each horse.

Bottom line is, up until the year 2001 or so, Finish Margins were determined subjectively by whomever was working the contracted photo company at each track.


M3