It's a photo! New camera technology unveiled at all British racecourses in time for the Cheltenham Festival

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Glory or despair in photo-finishes at the Cheltenham Festival this week will be clearer than ever before after the BHA announced an upgrade to the camera equipment at all racecourses.

Following a successful trial, new Lynx cameras have been brought in for all British races which the BHA is promising will “significantly improve the clarity of photos” used for deciding places.

The system already operates at the likes of Churchill Downs, Hong Kong and Flemington in Australia, and is able to capture approximately 6,000 frames a second.

A photo-finish is called when the judge determines the distance between two or more horses at the end of a race is a head, or less. The most recent time a photo-finish was used to separate the first two home at the Cheltenham Festival was in 2024, when Stellar Story defeated The Jukebox Man by a head in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle.

The scene of the finish on Trials day at CheltenhamCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

The quality of photo-finishes was called into question at Cheltenham's Trials day in January, when the first two horses home in the delayed final race could not be split on the official image due to darkness. Instead, the result was determined by watching replays in the stewards’ room.

David Hicks, BHA judge and team principal, said: “The introduction of Lynx photo-finish cameras gives BHA judges access to the highest-quality images and supports us in calling the results of races to a much greater degree of certainty.”

Hicks added that the process of determining finishing positions would remain the same, with “our expert team still scrutinising the photo-finish and exercising their judgement” but that the precision of the new cameras would help “especially when horses may be split by a very small number of pixels”.

John Bozza, chief executive of RaceTech, which operates the equipment, said: “These new cameras not only offer greater resolution images but perform much better in lower light conditions. We are delighted to support the BHA by investing in this new camera technology which will enhance the adjudication process.”

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