DEFECTIVE FORMATION.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XII, Issue 746, 23 June 1904, Page 11

DEFECTIVE FORMATION.

In “Milroy’s” interesting roundabout notes in the “ Sydney Mail ” he writes that a knot of trainers “talking horse” the other day at Randwick exchanged some interesting opinions and reminiscences on the subject nearest to their hearts—the noble horse. Roaring was discussed at length, and the consensus of opinion was that the trouble was not inherited but acquired colds, influenza, and overwork being the principal factors towards throat diseases. The idea that narrow gullets and defective jawbones were brought about roaring was scouted. Experts generally agree that a horse with narrow jaws set back into his neck cannot stay a distance, as this formation affects his breathing, but Harry Raynor mentioned Melos as a brilliant exception of this rule and’proof of the truth of the old saw that “horses run m all shapes.” There never was a truer stayer than Melos, yet his gullet was so narrow and pinched that it was a task of the greatest difficulty to physic him Despite this defect, which, in the opinion of 99 horsemen out of 100, bars a horse from getting a distance, Melos was at his best over three mites. He was out in the two best seasons known in Australia, and ran only in first-class races against such smashers as Abercorn, Carbine Dreadnought, Manton. and Megaphone, and he held his own with credit. With reasonable luck he would have added one of the three gnat cups to his list of wins which were all under w.f.a. conditions.

Melos was not anythirg like as brilliant a horse as Carbine, but he was a more genuine stayer. He needed a strong pacemaker to get anything like good results. If Melos went out to make his own running, a bores like Carbine would smother him at the finish, but, when a smasher like Dreadnought went out ir, the Champion Race to cut down Carbine, Melos was seen at his best, and outstayed the pair of them Three times during his career Melos beat Carbine at w.f.a., over a mile and a-quarter, two miles and a-quarter, and three miles, and though he met Abercorn many times over various distances he never managed to defeat Chester’s best son. How Melos lost the Melbourne Cup of 1889 is not so much of a mystery as many suppose.

After running Abercorn to a head, and beating Carbine in the Melbourne Stakes, it certainly looked like “sharping” the bookmakers to take 3 to 1 about him in the Cup with Bst 121 b on hie back. He was meeting Carbine on 161 b better terms, but the latter, who ran second, beat the Goldsbrough horse, who probably travelled over 100 yards more ground than any other horse in the race Dreadnought beat Melos in the Australian Cup by a nose, and two jumps after they passed the post Melos was half a length in front of the Chester horse. Melos was singularly unlucky in that race by being shut in among a lot of beaten horses when they turned for home, but when he got out how did he finish ! When Carbine beat him by a head in the Sydney Cup it would have been £lOOO to an orange on his getting the stakes had Mr Gannon protested, for, in that bumping finish, Carbine was undoubtedly the aggressor. The foregoing will give the present generation an idea of what manner of a horse Melos was, and yet his windpipe was as narrow as a quill. Another good horse of more recent times, built on ths same lines, is Le Var, who won races under all conditions from six furlong sprints to three miles at w.f.a., and he generally managed to give a good account of himself fit or unfit, Tom Payten gave a big price for Le Var as a yearling, and when h« got him home and saw more of him he liked him less, for the colt’s jaws were buried into his neck and pressed into the respiratory glands to an extent as to appear fatal to his chances of racing. Le Var was rather a|tough problem as a yearling. There was never a more determined fighter. When in tackling, it was his habit to buck till he fell exhausted, and when knocked up he often threw himself down in the sand box and roared with temper. After many strenuous battles with his teachers the colt sprung two lovely curbs, which, in conjunction with the throat and jaw formation, made Tom Payten as unhappy as a girl crossed in love. Payten called in a vet, who gave it as his opinion that the colt’s hocks were not likely to last through a preparation, and, if they did, the youngster with such jaws was almost certain to develop into a roarer, Payten tried to sell Le Var, but there were no buyers, so he doctored him up and trained him. The horse won races at Randwick and Flemington, in Western Australia and South Australia ; he raced for five seasons, and left the turf sound in wind and limb. .Doubtless Le Var and Melos are extreme exceptions of first-class horses having a bad defect so unusually pronounced, though their stamina goes to show that vitality is after all the first essential in a racehorse.