Mythical Bay beats Magnetude by a nose in Newmarket photo finish

Mythical Bay won Newmarket’s 2:05 Betway Bet £10 Get £40 Handicap by a nose after a five-minute photo-finish delay on Saturday, but James Owen was left convinced Magnetude should have taken the £100,000 contest. The Class 2 race over 1m6f for 3-year-olds carried a winner’s prize of £51,540, and the official result gave Mythical Bay the verdict over Magnetude, with the runner-up beaten just 0.02 lengths.

The race was run on good to firm ground in a time of 2m 55.03s, with Callum Hutchinson aboard the Andrew Balding-trained winner and Robert Havlin riding the James Owen-trained second. The finish was so tight that the judge took five minutes to decide, and during that delay Magnetude was briefly odds-on on the exchanges.

James Owen studied the image in the stewards’ room and believed Magnetude had a clear line on his nose. He planned to appeal, arguing that the winner’s image was blurred enough to require the other angle before any final call was made. He also said his owners, the Gredley family, were annoyed that winning photos were taken before the result had been known, and he pointed to the racecourse rather than the British Horseracing Authority as the source of the problem.

The judge records the first four home by eye, then calls for a photo finish when the margin is too tight to separate them cleanly. When a participant disputes a raceday decision, the Rules of Racing provide an appeals route, and this result is heading into a formal review.

Sportingsilvermine landed the £125,000 Old Newton Cup earlier on the card. Tattycoram broke the track record in the Group 2 Lancashire Oaks after the race was moved from Haydock because a hole opened in the straight.