koicop,
I think alot of hooey is made over picking a winner from a vat of koi. Especially when the selection is as good as in those pics and you have virtually first choice.
I always put it as plain ol luck, and the fact that the picker and the judge just agree on what koi looks good that day.
I have never been boastful of picking a tosai that won at best in size one..it is a crap shoot. Each of the times I have had a koi win Size One it has NOT been a fish that I thought had a chance.
the first best in Size one I won was a real fluke. I was trying to catch another kohaku to take to the show but a smaller uglier baby kept aending up sitting in the net...after the umteenth time I tossed it into the bag and took it to the show. i was blind-sided when the judges gave it the nod. Two other koi I had in size one were the ones I "liked"..one was a little doitsu sanke and I entered it in the "sanke" instead of Doitsu division because I thought it was thta good. When it took best in size one sanke over some other scaled sankes I heard one of the othe sanke owners mumble to another that he would have put it in Doitsu because no other Doitsu were in size one..i thought that wouldn't be any fun to "win".
i was happy with that First Size One win as I did have the koi in my pond for about three months before the show.
now back to "picking a winner ...
at Syphkiss (CFKS) 07 a koi I "owned" also took best in Size one...I wasn't as fortunate as you...i wasn't there when the boxes were opened. i got to pick after a25% of the fish had been taken...
It was luck blind luck..well i did make sure the koi I chose did have all their fins.
I think it is clear that I do not brag about my koi picking abilities in relation to how judges veiw fish I pick in size one.
Here is what I posted after I picked a koi that the judges also liked on that day at CFKS last year... ( I copied form koishack).
even a koi judge could have picked that winner...hint it is a kohaku in this picture...which kohaku?
but in my defense......
i got up at 6 AM and bagged 14 fish by myself and drove to orlando where i unloaded the koi and then asked for directions to the Judging Seminar. they said it was on the right side of the atrium. So i went there and there were a few recognizable koikichi hanging around the door and looking in a tank that didn't even have any fish in it...and they had numbers.
So I asked, "What do I gotta do?"
the reply was, "Get a Number from that guy (over there)?
So i went over and got a number (#6), and then came back over to the group and said, "What's the Number for? (thinking it was how they were going to decide groups or something for the Seminar). And did I mention i got up before 6AM to bag fish by myself?
And He said, "To buy his fish" ( "his" being Eastern Nishikigoi).
And I said, "Ha! I ain't gonna buy HIS fish. I get alot from Blackwater and some from Brady, and I enjoy a few homegrowns that have something to look at as well." But this hobbyist was really hung up on how good the fish were so I didn't throw away the number...
And then i started watching the Eastern Nishikigoi guy prep to sell his koi. he moved slow but at a steady pace. And he didn't even notice the crowd that was starting to form around him; he was all about keeping the environment healthy for the koi. And I noticed while he was floating the bags and had plugged in the air and water pump he still took the time to turn the water over manually with a small bowl (Now that stuck out...i had not seen that done except in videos.) This guy didn't converse or work the crowd. he opened the first bag of fifty or so 3-6inch koi and caught each one individually and released it into the vat. he didn't dump them in water and all, nor did he catch them with a net in groups out of the bags. He took the care and time needed for each individual koi to be safe and well.
But I noticed the koi were colored up to the max, so I wasn't going to buy any... Don't forget i got up before 6AM remember.
but Connie Langston showed up just then and she was excited that Eastern Nishikigoi was there, and she got a number (12 i think?).
When she came over I said it looked like the fish had been given "color-enhancing" food. And she said that wasn't the case. She had gotten a koi from him last year and it had had a neat line of hi going from one hi plate to another. I heard later that that koi won "Best in Size 1" with it last year. And she was afraid that the line would disappear as the koi normalized in her pond. but it didn't. The line thickened so that the two plates and line now looks like an hourglass.
So i decided to look a little closer at the "tategoi.' There were alot of nice little tidllers in there. it wasn't tough to see that the vast majority were excellent but small koi.
OH! And the koi were for sale for 25-35 dollars. Every one of them. So I decided to take a chance.
But i was there for the Judging Seminar so I had to keep going into the Judging Seminar and then stepping out to see what number was up....and i learned a long time ago if you look into a tank where you are going to buy fish while someone else is picking fish thn you are going to get your heart broke and hate the guy buying in front of you. So i didn't look at them. And i kept coming back out....some people were taking 20 minutes to pick their fish, and they were averaging about 10 fish a person.
And when they got to number 5 I had to go to the vat and do the practicum, so I wouldn't loose my slot Connie said i should ask the lady with number 7 if she'd swap with me so I could at least pick after the lab. She agreede but i was so quick at picking the Showas that i was back before #5 finished...and then I needed to go hear and compare the results of the lab. So I asked the lady if she;'d let me go and if I picked something she had set her mind on having she'd tell me and I'd let her have it. She was kind enough to do that. I bet she didn't get up before 6AM, she wasn't grouchy at all. So i looked in the tank and knowing I had just a couple of minutes, and knowing that the showas were the ones that were worked over the most by those in front of me (and I would have gotten more of them too as you can see the quality and promise in the one i have in the photo), So I decided to go look at the Kohakus...those in the photo were the three I picked along with the one showa ($100 is alot of money for me). I did it in 2 minutes and when i picked the Kohaku that won size one, Connie Langston wished for me to burn in hell (Not nice NOT nice) under her breath. And when i quickly told the dealer to bag them he smiled at me like he thought I knew what I was doing.
i asked him if he'd hold the koi for me for awhile. And of course he agreed to. But when i told him I'd be back after the Seminar to put them in my tank he quietly told me, "Nice Kohaku." with emphasis.
i put them in my tank because I didn't want them to be in a bag for two days.
SO................
I didn't mean to get a number to buy some foreign koi. I really didn't want some colored-up koi. And I wanted to hurt the people in front of me that couldn't pick a 3 inch fish without having it in a bowl for three minutes when the dang thing only cost $25, and there were five of them in front of me (actually more because some people that got there late were buying koi when their frinds were picking too...i wanted to doubly kill those people.). And after I bought them i realized I was in a pickle as i couldn't keep them in a bag for 2 days, and if I put them in the Tank then they'd have to be in the show....and while I was dropping them in the tank John Sprinkle was standing there and he leaned over and said, "Looks like you got some ringers for best in size 1. i am going to go see what I can find."
I told him he was at a disadvantage as i had already picked the best outta the tank. And he countered with the fact that he had the advantage because he had seen what I had gotten so he was prepared to find one to beat mine....i wonder if he did try?
So MY "Ringers" (plural as those three took best in size one and first and second in size 1 kohaku) were an impulse buy from getting a ticket for what I thought was the judging seminar. If the dealer hadn't been such a classy guy, and Connie hadn't been a true friend and encouraged me to try some of Eastern Nishikigoi's fish then I'd still have my integrity...so I am Blaming it on My Dear friend Connie Langston... and she better get me out of this Attached thumbnail(s) 
Reduced 60%
Koicop,
But let me congratulate you on your good fortune ..you are close to EN, and have the time to be there when it is opportune, and have the money to buy koi of a quality I can not.