Swale’s death mystery

Press, 23 June 1984, Page 28

Swale’s death mystery

NZPA New York Swale definitely did not suffer from heart failure, and the cause of his death last Sunday morning remains a mystery, say veterinarians after completing preliminary laboratory reports. Dr Helen Ackland, head of the Laboratory for Large Animal Pathology at the New Bolton Centre near Philadelphia, said that blood samples and all of the colt’s organs except his brain had been subjected to microscopic analysis. She said the results “provide no further explanation of the cause of death.”

The only noteworthy find-

ings, Dr Ackland said, were pulmonary oedema, the accumulation of fluid in the lungs, and cardiac hypertrophy, thick heart walls. But she said that oedema is “a common terminal event” and that hypertrophy “is frequently observed in athletes.”

Swale, a three-year-old son of Seattle Slew, which won the Kentucky Derby on May 5 and the Belmont Stakes 14 days ago, was initially believed to have suffered a heart attack or ruptured aorta. An autopsy at Belmont Park revealed no visible lesions or ruptured vessels in the heart.