horse racing photos

A photo finish occurs in a sporting race, when two (or more) competitors cross the finishing line at near the same time. As the naked eye may not be able to discriminate between which of the competitors crossed the line first, a strip photo, a series of rapidly triggered photographs, or a video taken at the finish line may be used for a more accurate check. Nowadays, the photographs may be digital but usually involve special equipment. They may be triggered by a laser or photovoltaic means.
Historically, a hand cranked strip photograph was taken at the finishing line. Today, finish-line photos are still used in nearly every modern racing sport. Although some sports use electronic equipment to track the racers during a race, a photo is considered the most important evidence in selecting the winner. However, they may be examined only when a race is close or when a record has been broken. An alternative is the use of manual touch pads to register a time by the atheletes themselves, such as in competitive swimming.
In athletics, races have to be timed accurately to hundredths (or even thousandths) of a second. A battery of electronic devices are installed in high-profile events (such as the Olympic Games) to ensure that accurate timings are given swiftly both to the public and the officials.
At the finish line, photocells and digital cameras are used to establish the placings. Sometimes, in a race as fast as the 100 m sprint, all eight athletes can be separated by less than half a second. It is not uncommon for two athletes to have the exact same time recorded.
The 2008 Summer Olympics saw the introduction of some of the fastest timekeeping equipment yet, with cameras that take photographs 3000 times a second (compared to 1996, which were 1000 times per second)[In horse racing, a factor known as a dead heat can occur, when two - or possibly more - horses cross the finish line at the same time. Photo finishes determine accurately where the horses were at the time of finish. Stewards at the racetrack usually put up PHOTO status on the races during these photo finishes; the status of objection or inquiry can also trigger if other horses or jockeys somehow interfered in the horse rankings and can factor in Dead Heats. The most notable dead heat was in 1989's Hambletonian, with both Park Avenue Joe and Probe finishing in a dead heat. A photo finish decided the winner of the 2005 edition of the Japan Cup, which was given to Alkaseed and narrowly beating Heart's Cry.