If a contest is Down To The Wire the outcome can’t be determined until the very last – it’s going to be a close finish. The term comes from horse racing. Back before televised horse racing, a wire would be strung across the finishing line above the riders' heads. A steward would then be placed to look down the line to see more easily who had won during neck-and-neck finishes. In 1889, a journalist wrote in Scribers Magazine: “As the end of the stand was reached, Timarch worked up to Petrel, and the two raced down to the wire, cheered on by the applause of the spectators. They ended the first half mile of the race head and head, passing lapped together under the wire, and beginning in earnest the mile which was yet to be traversed.” This close race had gone “down to the wire”. The expression has been in wide used since then.