With four tote favourites winning, the Champions Day Pick 6 dividend at Turffontein on Saturday was just R1251-70. But it could have been substantially more, had a photo-finish gone the other way in the opening leg.
Blizzard Snow (inside with Gavin Lerena up) gets the better of One Party (Muzi Yeni, closest to camera) in a thriller (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Muzi Yeni and trainer Fanie Bronkhorst looked to have dished up a knockout blow in the fourth race, with the 20-1 One Party, a winner everywhere bar the line, being collared late by a determined Gavin Lerena on the Tony Peter-trained tote favourite, Blizzard Snow (2-1).
Despite the more popular choice winning, the Sporting Post fielded a number of queries as to the accuracy of the call. Similar to what happened at Hollywoodbets Durbanville in the fourth race on Saturday 22 March, the replay and the result seemed to generate some doubt.
The Stipes report now indicates that the NHA officials acted proactively.
It states that shortly after the finish, the judges named the first six horses past the finishing post and due to the small margins involved in this result, with particular reference to the first and second positions, as well as the third and fourth positions, the Stipes requested the judges to generate the identical photograph that they had used to base their decision on so that they could be comfortably satisfied that the correct result had been called.
Phot-finish image received from NHA on 30 March 2025
Upon careful consideration of this photograph, the Stewards were satisfied that the result called by the judges was correct and, as a courtesy, provided an opportunity for Trainer Fanie Bronkhorst (One Party), which was involved in this review of the finish, to establish if he also saw a discernible difference in the photograph between number the 4 (Blizzard Snow) and 8 (Onne Party).
Trainer Bronkhorst confirmed that he was comfortable and the all-clear was given by the Stewards.
That’s refreshing!
