THE ROARER

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 26, 22 April 1927, Page 6

THE ROARER

GONE IN THE WIND HOW IT AFFECTS HORSES SHORT SPEED NULLIFIED The fastest horse in the Doncaster last Monday (although he did not win), and the one backed for most money by his connections, Top Gallant, is what is known in turf parlance as broken-winded. A small muscle in the throat, atrophied, has let drop a part of the vocal cord on to the entrance to the windpipe, and breathing is obstructed. With this, Top Gallant can still gallop faster than any ether horse in the race, but what punters would like to have known—those who have backed him for tens of thousands in straightout and Cup double wagers—is whether, afflicted as he is, Top Gallant could stay the Doncaster mile. His affliction comes of a trilling affection caused probably through a cold. The pity is that it should have attacked Top Gallant, one of the fastest horses in England before he came to Australia, and a magnificent type of animal with the powerful stride of a champion. SECTION RESPONSIBLE The “vocal” section of the throat is really responsible, and yet it is strange that this thing that can rob a racehorse of his essential power should some of so trifling a thing. What’s a horse want vocal arrangements for, anyhow? He is never heard to whisper the good tip to the poor punter. At the entrance to the trachea, or windpipe, is a corner called the laryngeal opening, in which are two vocal cords, the right and left arytenoid cartilages. One of these, sometimes both, but more generally that on the left, becomes paralysed and obstructs the passage of air breathed on its way to the lungs. The obstruction is the great fault that causes roaring. LISTEN TO THE BAND!

The actual noise of roaring is only a minor effect of the harm done. As the air is breathed in, the small piece of dead or paralysed flesh vibrates, causing the sound known as whistling or roaring. At the same time, it prevents the horse from tilling his lungs to capacity, and it can easily be understood that this obstruction in the air passages preventing full breathing has a disastrous effect on the horse's stamina and vitality. It is like a man half-choked trying to run a long distance. With his air passage impeded, .a horse can last for a certain distance, but reserve oxygen is being used up all the time, and the logical outcome if the horse runs far enough, is total collapse. TWO OPERATIONS _ amem Two operations are possible. In the one a tube can be placed through the horse’s neck, reaching to the open air, and through this his breath passes instead of through the nostrils, and thus the obstructed part of the throat is avoided. Or by a grafting process, the atro-

phied portion of flesh that drops over the windpipe can be fastened back near its original position, clear of the wind passage. But tubed horses have never been a success. And once broken-winded, the other operation has never enabled a horse to become a champion. A striking instance of a tubed horse developing unusual stamina, however, was that of Ecarte, who became a hurdler, and won over distances of from two miles up. But Top Gallant has never been operated on. ROBBED OF AIR And he must go galloping through his turf career with the little dead portion flesh vibrating over his windpipe, setting up a noise as he gallops like a giant human snoring, and robbing him of the air that goes to make vitality. He is better some days than others. A dry atmosphere helps him. Moisture and cold mar his already affected breathing. Thus he won the Caulfield Futurity Stakes, over seven furlongs, distancing the field before the race was half run and finally winning by five lengths, easing up.