GIVING A HORSE ITS SECOND WIND

Otago Witness, Issue 2394, 18 January 1900, Page 44

GIVING A HORSE ITS SECOND WIND

"Analyst," writer of a book entitled "Flat Racing Explained," as&ails the practice of pulling and mauling a doubtful stayer about in the hope of making him stay. Much bettor to let him run his own race in the Sloan style. He thinks Sloan's seac scientifically con-ect Placed as he is, he not only avoids all wind pressure, but he removes the weight from the natural curve of the back of the horse, Snd thus does not interfere with the bend or curve of the back, from which the? horse gains underreach." He does not g ; vo hid opinion as whether the critics who do not like Sloan's method are right in saying that when perched on his mount's neck he has no means of pre venting the horse .from swerving about the course at will when finishing. "Analyst" discourses at length on the possibility of riding a sprinter so that he shall beat staving plodders ov§r a distance* -He sayAj. "As a

rule, horses that stop at five or six furlongtf have small lung capacity, and frequently the only chance of getting them to cover a distance at one burst is at high speed from beginning to end. These horses, however, can be made to cover longer distances without difficulty if, instead of the foolish practice of holding them back and waiting, as it is terme"?', they arfc^.llow'e'd to travel throughout at high speed, the only difference made being that, at a gn en point, when they are getting towards the end of a burst (say half a furlong short of the known distance they can slay), they are pulled suddenly up, as though to stop. Tins momentary action on the part of the jockey recharges the lungs, when the horse will continue the struggle with renewed vigour, and will be found to go on and complete another burst." The first question which will occur to anyone reading this theory, pays the Australasian, is, "What will the horses that can stay be doing while the sprinter is being stopped to take in a fresh supply of wind?" The writer admits that the thing must be = carefully and skilfully done, but he has faith in his idea, and thinks the brilliant miler Victor Wild would have won the Ascot Cup of 1896 if he had been pulled up twice to get fresh wind. We hear of a man or a, horse getting his second wind in a slow, plodding race, but "Analyi&t's" scheme is to go full tilt, with intervals on the way. Wo are afraid the average Australian jockey could not be trusted to perform the pulling up operation with "such skill that it will not only be unpercelved, but a horse will not lose an inch of ground in the process." Probably a jockey attempting to do as recommended would speedily be dealt with for infringing the riding-out rule. When he comes to proving his case by example, the writer comes to unutterable grief. He takes as an illustration Peter's Royal Hunt Cup win in 1881, after the wayward chestnut had stopped to kick. "Analyst" says Peter did not stop to kick at all. "He was dead settled at five furlongs, and merely put his head down to take in air." Unfortunately everyone knows that in the Hunt Cup Peter stopped before he had gone 200 yds. In the Goodwood Cup, a month later, ho jibbed altogether, and Archer walked him across the course to the saddling paddock. Sloan, according to the author, reinflateel Nonsuch when she beat Georgic in the Old Cambridgeshire.