122 RACEHORSES IN AUSTRALIA 



anything of old Tartan until the distance was reached, then he would come 

 along like a bolt from the blue and smother his opponents, as he did with 9.6 

 in the Australian Cup. This is quite characteristic of the stayer. If you hurry 

 him too much in the early stages of a long race you will defeat him. The 

 reason is that his heart must not be asked to do too much too quickly. You 

 must let him gradually get his heart beating in a slow, methodical way, and 

 then all goes well, and when the time comes everything is as it should be; his 

 lungs being unimpeded in their work co-operate with the heart. If, however, 

 you hurry the stayer too much in the first part of the race the circulation 

 becomes upset — that is, the circulation in the lungs causes an engorgement 

 that interferes with the breathing of the horse, and with the smooth working 

 of his heart. 



Some stayers have a particular kind of heart which enables them to 

 sprint, and, at the same time, it allows them to begin quickly in a distance race, 

 to get into a good position early, and to keep their places. Poseidon was such 

 a horse. He was a perfect stayer, could sprint like a pure sprinter, and was 

 so clever in a big field that he could take up any position he liked in any race 

 no matter the distance. Mooltan, another horse with a Positano heart, could 

 run a mile (second in the Epsom), win a Metropolitan, and run second in a 

 Melbourne Cup. No better example of this type of horse could be found 

 now than Sasanoff — a perfect sprinter and a perfect stayer. Wakeful was 

 another. 



Again, there are some horses who can run in front of the field for a 

 distance and keep up the pace. They, in fact, run a waiting race in front. 

 These horses, however, are' often not true stayers. Desert Gold, Biplane and 

 Gloaming could each do this for a mile and a-half; for two miles Prince 

 Bardolph did it in the Sydney Cup with success, and tried to do the same 

 thing in the Australian Cup, but when he had gone two miles and a furlong 

 a horse with a Carbine heart — Defence — caught and beat him easily. 

 Posinatus won his Melbourne Cup in this way from start to finish, and I fancy 

 Newhaven did the same thing, while Harvest King, with a Comedy King 

 staying heart, won the last Australian Cup and led throughout. 



Now a word on Endurance: this is not the same thing as staying. The 

 difference between the two is a matter of pace. For instance, some horses in 

 East India can sprint quite well for three furlongs, but cannot go fast for any 

 distance, yet they are capable of going 80 miles in a cart from sunrise to 

 sunset. This brings home to us that staying power — that is, the ability to 

 go two miles at a very rapid pace — requires a different type of heart to the 

 endurance heart. We may admit that this latter must be a good type of 

 heart, but it is a different type to the staying heart. The endurance heart is 

 well illustrated when we come to deal with jumping horses. We all know 

 of horses that could only get a mile on the flat — say, for instance. Lord 

 Nagar, who won the Villiers — yet when these horses become hurdlers we see 

 them putting up records and winning over two miles in quite brilliant fashion. 

 The explanation is that it is only a matter of pace. A cab horse can run two 

 miles, but his pace is nothing. A hurdler can run two miles, but the time he 

 takes would leave him a furlong or two behind in a weight-for-age race. 

 Therefore when we say a horse can sla)), we imply the possession of a heart 

 that can stand the enormous strain of running two miles, or more, in time that 

 will not much exceed three minutes twenty-six seconds, carrying a good 

 weight. 



And now that I have mentioned weight, let us ask: What effect has 

 weight on a horse in regard to staying? 



