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Today's Racing :

Part 2 of Judges made the right call - David Thiselton

Continues from Part One - Judges made the right call - David Thiselton

There are different versions of what happened post decision. Eisele reckoned by request he delivered a print to Young Rake’s part-owner, Greg Blank, in the parade ring two races later and Blank was satisfied that the correct decision had been made. However, Blank recalled: “It took them 15 minutes to call the result and then took them nine months to give us a photograph. We received one that was magnified 400 times by which stage El Picha’s nose looked like pinnochios. It gave them the result they wanted, but that’s all history now.” Newspaper reports at the time and a DVD of the race would suggest that the decision took six to seven minutes to make, whilst the legal limit at the time for magnifying a picture was three times. To deny any member of the public the right to view a photo-finish immediately would also be illegal. Trainer David Ferraris was not happy at the time and said: “It’s just not on that they didn’t declare a dead-heat after that length of time. You can’t separate them in the photograph with the naked eye.” Judging by his comment one wonders whether Ferraris was misled by the television presenter who said falsely, while thousands waited for the result, that “the judges are now looking at the picture with a magnifying glass.”
Eisele confirmed this was nonsense and probably a lost in translation reference to the picture being blown up on the computer.
In fact the naked eye view of the original picture is the clearest one and a look at the print 10 years later, even in its weathered state, leaves little doubt that the judges called it right.
Kevin Shea, rider of Young Rake, said yesterday: “It was tough to lose a July like that, but I know nothing about photo finish procedures and have to have faith they are doing it right. As long as Warren Eisele is chief judge I will believe they are.”
Thousands of punters were reportedly angry on the day and called for a dead-heat to be declared.
But Eisele, who said he had received threats, countered: “I reckon 90% of the public don’t know how the photo-finish works. For example another factor that caused controversy was that the television freeze frame indicated a dead-heat. Firstly the television camera is not exactly on the line and can also easily be bumped. Television pictures also only record 32 frames a second so it would only be by fluke that you would get a freeze fame exactly on the line. Our camera, on the other hand, is set up by a surveyor and is built into the brickwork.”
The cameras at the time shot 769 frames per second.
Eisele feels that the Durban judges are the most meticulous in the country.
“We are the only judges that call by colours and not numbers. A number can often be blocked by the saddle cloth flailing.
“We go to the parade ring before every race and make a record of things like the colours, the bridles, the size of the girths, the colour of any headgear, the manes of the horses etc. When calling a photo-finish we are not only looking at separating the horses but also have to make absolutely sure that we have the correct horses by checking them against all this visual evidence.”
Eisele, whose grandfather Charles and Uncle Jack preceded him as chief judges, concluded: “One thing we absolutely cannot do is change the position of the line and the horses on the photograph, which some pundits suggested was the reason we took so long to decide the 2 000 July finish!”

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