The Judge at Sandown is a dumpling

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By Jonathan Harding
UPDATED 5:03PM, MAR 9 2019

An incorrect result was announced for the £75,000 EBF Final at Sandown on Saturday after the judge based his decision on a photo-finish taken at the wrong winning post.

The 2m4f race finished at the second winning line, but the judge was given a picture by the photo-finish operator taken at the first winning post and mistakenly called One For Rosie the winner by a neck as he was in front at the first post.

After a lengthy delay the result was revised and Third Wind was called the winner before the weighed-in signal, which is the official sign that bets can be settled.

However, some punters had already collected their winnings from on-course bookmakers, while most off-course firms paid out on both horses.

While a confidential report has been forwarded to the BHA headquarters in London for further investigation, the blunder was attributed to human error in the pre-race checks by the photo-finish operator Racetech.

Will Hudson, the stipendiary steward, said: "The judge called it [the result] on the photo provided to him on the first winning line. Following that, the procedure is to send it to the stewards and I was provided with the same photo and the result was verified.

"After that it was established it was not the right image. The photo-finish operator Racetech has two cameras which are meant to be focused on the same winning line. In this instance one camera was on each winning line. We were able to see the incorrect result had been called and asked the judge to revisit the image and he was in the process of acknowledging the error."

He added: "It was human error with two cameras on different winning lines. The photo-finish operators should have checked with each other and they didn't, but I would like to emphasise the cameras and the set-up is no responsibility of the BHA judge; they rely on the operators to make sure it's correct."

Nigel Twiston-Davies: trainer of One For Rosie, who was incorrectly called the winner
Nigel Twiston-Davies: trainer of One For Rosie, who was incorrectly called the winner
Edward Whitaker

Nigel Twiston-Davies, trainer of One For Rosie, said: "It's very depressing but mistakes happen. You wouldn't believe it but I have made a mistake before. It's a great shame, but we’ve still got a lovely horse."

Third Wind's trainer Hughie Morrison said: "Nigel was extremely good and very philosophical. We had all accepted a dead-heat. A professional punter came up to us in the winner's enclosure and told us they'd got the winning post wrong.

"We didn't know if we'd got up on the second line, but it looked to the naked eye like we did. It's not the way you want to win a race, but the horse probably deserved it because he hated the ground all the way around."

This is the second time in a year that the wrong result has been called at Sandown after Rio Ronaldo was announced the winner in a 5f handicap on the separate sprint course in July, before the result was changed with Vibrant Chords handed the victory

The gents must have had too much
GIN FIZZ