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Rare Photo-Finish Captures Triple Dead Heat in Horse Racing

Bangkok, Thailand – On Sunday, January 18th the timers at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club (RBSC) in Thailand captured a rare moment in horse racing history. Three horses finished in a triple dead heat photo-finish for 2nd place. The rare triple dead heat took place during the popular Sunday races and was captured with an EtherLynx Fusion camera at 1,800 frames per second.

According to the official RBSC results, horse #9 took first place in the 1200 meter race with a time of 1:12.84 while horses 5, 7, & 13 tied in a dead heat for second place. All three horses were officially evaluated by the judges at finish time of 1:13.33. Does that mean all three horses split the 2nd place purse, you might wonder? Not exactly. In this case, the three horses actually split the combined winnings for positions 2, 3, and 4. So at least there’s a little more money to go around.

While photo-finishes are common at horse tracks, this triple dead heat is exceptionally rare. In fact, only a few triple dead heats have ever been recorded.  This is the first triple dead heat recorded by the RBSC in the club’s 112-year history of horse racing. And one article claims there have been just 6 triple dead heats recorded since 1990. This finish at the Royal Bangkok Turf Club would perhaps be the seventh. Fortunately, FinishLynx timing cameras provide judges with indisputable, time-stamped photo-finish images accurate to at least 1/1000th of a second.

For more information on FinishLynx timing systems for horse racing, visit our thoroughbred and greyhound packages.

Triple Dead Heat horse racing photo finish
Triple Dead Heat Photo-Finish Image. Captured by the Royal Bangkok Sports Club.