Racing: No feigning the tension after Bluff's late run raises tension in a long wait

Greg Wood witnesses the long wait endured in York's winners' enclosure

It took less than a minute for the 15 runners to pound down five furlongs of the Knavesmire, but almost half an hour before the destination of nearly pounds 100,000 in prize money could be determined. Jane Stickels, the judge, took 24 minutes to decide that Ya Malak and Coastal Bluff were beyond separation, and with each passing second, the knots in the stomachs of the two horses' connections grew ever tighter.

"At least it's stayed in Yorkshire," someone said, and that was the only certainty on offer. Immediately after the race, Ya Malak was most people's idea of the winner, but the replay showed just how close it was and suddenly no one was counting their winnings. Certainly not Mike Gosse, the owner of Ya Malak, who stood in the rain in the winners' enclosure holding his umbrella with a commendably tremor-free hand.

Stickels called for a blown-up print, and then another. Not so long ago, a dead-heat would have been declared after the first print, but not any more. Judges, with the latest in modern technology to assist them, are determined to find a winner wherever possible, even when everyone could see that a dead-heat was the fairest result of all.

By the time Stickels settled down to examine the second print, she was operating at almost a molecular level. Yet still the minutes dragged past, as both punters and owners tried to calculate what was riding on the outcome.

"I'd happily just split it with them now," Gosse said, five minutes before the result finally arrived. "It's the best result. What's the point in blowing it up and the blowing it up again?" It was the attitude of a true sportsman, but even then, few believed that Stickels would declare a dead- heat, the first in a Group One event since Prince Of Dance and Scenic crossed the line as one in the Dewhurst Stakes nine years ago.

Even the diligent judge, however, finally had to admit defeat, as the field for the next race was cantering to the post. Where there would otherwise have been both jubilation and bitter disappointment, now there was simply jubilation.

Some might say that it was an unsatisfactory result, that such an important race should always have just one winner. But not if they had experienced the careering emotions in the winners' enclosure yesterday, or the unbridled delight that the final outcome was an honourable draw.