BUT THEY DID STAY

NZ Truth, Issue 1200, 29 November 1928, Page 11

BUT THEY DID STAY

Theorist Doctor Hoisted On His Own Petard REJECTED JILL PLACES (From: "N.Z. Truth's" Special Sydney Representative.) The Sydney medico, Dr. Stewart Mackay, has somehow persuaded himself that he is an expert on horse-breeding; m fact, he published a book called "The Racehorse m Australia."

LIKE many other theorists, he is a man of one idea, and that idea is that nothing matters iri connection with a racehorse except his heart. Each year the worthy doctor attempts to pick the Melbourne Cup per guidance of his pet theory, and this year he discarded both Statesman and Strephon because their . hearts were wrong. , •-.'..' What he could tell about their hearts by just looking at their hides is best known to himself. Writing of Statesman, he said: "That he is a fine, big, strong muscular horse with a good turrt of speed is quite true, but people foi'get that the bigger a horse is the heavier he is, and that he has to move that weight over two miles, and that, though good muscles are requisite for the task, it is his internal pumping engine— that is, his heart — that is the real arbiter of, his fate. . ' "Now I maintain that the Demosthenes horses are not true stayers, and I do not forget that one of them was one of the greatest horses ever seen m New Zealand, and he was a fine stayer, I allude to Amythas. "But I mistrust the sires who pro T duce only a stray real stayer, and just as I mistrust Magpie as a sire of stayers, so I distrust, Demosthenes." . Considering that old Bacchus „ beat Winalot over two miles at Randwick, and that Windbag was ' one of the greatest stayers we ever . saw, the doctor's sneer at Magpie seems somewhat uncalled for. Similarly his knock to Demosthenes

is a misfire, for the first and third horses m the Melbourne Cup were both by Demosthenes. That. McKay should deign to mention Amythas as "a fine stayer" is very kind of him. But why the shortness of breath? Was he afraid that eulogy of horses got. by Demosthenes would cruel ' his own case? Amythas was a fine stayer. So were Gasbag and Duo, and then there was. a mare called Karo, which won an Auckland Cup. Impediment and Afterglow are two others which were got by Demosthenes. ' No wonder New Zealanders at the meeting did not hesitate m nominating the doctor as a "quack" — when it- came to' diagnosing horses. His description of Statesman as a big, heavy horse, ' with a lot of weight to shift; is ludicrous. Statesman is a very compact horse. He is nothing like as big as David or Trafalgar, and thos^ two could stay all right, so the heavy-bodied theory falls to/the ground along with the heart theory. Writing of Strephon, the doctor said: "Everything points to Strephon being a non-stayer over two miles on his sire's side." And .yet Strephon's sire .is fullbrother to Buchan, which won, among other great races, the Ascot Gold Cup, run over two miles and a-half! Not a bad performance for a horse descended from a non-staying line. , T'nree of the doctor's non-stayers were first, second and third m the Melbourne Cup. Can you beat it? A