DAQMAN: Amended result in a BETDAQ sponsored race – five days later !!. DAQMAN has his say on the misfortunate incident at Kempton.
Punters are always in a battle in horse racing.
Even when you’ve spent hours going through the formbook and think you have ‘found one’ you accept there’s an element of risk and, excuse the cliche, ‘horses are not machines’.
The variables of sport and split second decisions by jockeys you accept.
What you can’t accept though is a judge getting the result of a race wrong after they have passed the line.
To rub salt into the wound it affected an even money favourite.
To add further salt it was in a BETDAQ sponsored race !!
Judge Dave Smith has come in for plenty of criticism in the past and called a race wrong at Windsor in 2011.
His trademark seems to be announcing results as quickly as possible.
It begs a question that I can’t answer. Why.
In his latest gaff even-money favourite Extra Noble and Fire Fighting (16/1) were very quickly deemed to have shared the spoils by judge Dave Smith but almost immediately punters began to air their reservations on Twitter.
The photo-finish print, normally available on the BHA, website did not appear until the following morning following technical problems.
In a statement on yesterday the governing body said: “The British Horseracing Authority contacted the judge Mr David Smith and asked him to reconsider his original decision of a dead-heat for first place between Extra Noble and Fire Fighting in the £200 Free Bets At Betdaq Maiden Stakes at Kempton Park on 26th June 2013.
“After further consideration, within the time period laid down in Rule (B)62.2 of the Rules of Racing, Mr Smith agreed that the result was incorrect and that Extra Noble should be placed first and Fire Figthing second. The BHA confirmed the revised placings.”
BHA spokesman Robin Mounsey admitted that ‘punter power’ had forced the BHA to request the high-definition version of the photo-finish print.
“The version (of the photo-finish print) that was posted was low definition, but we were able to get the high-definition version from RaceTech,” he said.
“When we heard there were concerns about the result we requested that and got it. We looked at that.”
The BHA said it was conducting an internal investigation into the circumstances which led to Smith originally declaring the result of the race a dead-heat.
“The internal investigation will look into all circumstances as to why it was called wrongly,” said Mounsey.
Quite right that they look into this as a matter of urgency.
Frankly no judge should be allowed to be in a position to announce results so quickly. Punters don’t mind waiting an extra 1,2,3 minutes as long as the right result is delivered.
In the opener at Brighton today Putin might be good enough to see off the favourite Where’s Reiley. Both gained overdue wins last time out but Putin handles this track well and as we know Brighton is a specialist track.
All my three bets run at Brighton today.
DAQMAN’S BETS:
BET 8pts win (nap) PUTIN (2.15 Brighton)
BET 4pts win TOOLEY WOODS (2.45 Brighton)
BET 12pts win DECENT FELLA (4.45 Brighton)
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