The hardest part
The time taken to declare a dead heat on last Saturday’s final race at Caulfield was nothing to the 12 minutes it took to award a race at Sandown in May 1975.
With Lloyd Williams’s Nearest (ridden by top apprentice Gerald Ryan) a 9/4-on ($1.44) favourite to win the Coral Sea Handicap, punters were forced to wait an agonising length of time to learn their fate.
Nearest, the anchor leg in most daily doubles and quadrellas had made a final lunge at Repetition for the judge, Ken Sturt, to signal a photo finish.
As a 13-year-old, I recall the bewilderment of 3UZ’S ace race caller Bert Bryant, firstly at the fact that Nearest had come from so far back from the leaders (his preferred racing pattern) on the home turn to get so close, and then, as the minutes ticked by, the duration of time required to post a result.
Finally, Repetition was semaphored as the winner, after the judge had deliberated over three developed prints of the photo.
A shadow on Repetition’s nose in the main photo had caused much concern but the mirror image clearly showed a margin for Repetition over Nearest.
It was the most discussed photo finish in Melbourne since the famous triple dead heat in the 1956 Hotham Handicap on VRC Derby day.
Kew (Vic)