If we walk and carry a weight we can go a certain distance and not feel fatigued, but if we attempt to run with the same weight we soon find out the difference. In walking we always have one foot on the ground; in running we are entirely off the ground at times. In walking we put little strain on the heart, for the foot that is always on the ground helps us; while in running we have to lift the whole weight of the body from the ground, and so we call on the heart to do much more work. If then, we have to carry a weight and run, we have not only to lift the body from the ground but also the weight. Naturally, the heart is called upon to do more work and becomes exhausted in proportion to the amount of weight carried, the distance it is carried, and the time consumed. The heart muscle, as a matter of fact, in great exertion has to work at eight times its normal rate, and so it becomes tired, and the effect of fatigue is simply to reduce the output of the heart.
Weight acts on the heart in the same way that distance does—that is, weight tires the heart after a certain amount of energy has been expended, and distance exhausts the heart in galloping on account of the amount of work required from the heart; a horse may trot fifty miles who cannot gallop two; the reason being that in the trot his body is not entirely off the ground, in the gallop it is. It is the pace that tells.
There are many horses capable of carrying a huge weight at a great pace for a short distance, and yet they cannot carry a light weight for a long distance. Thus Woorak, as he got on in years, could carry weight-for-age for a mile, but we saw 9.12 send him into second place in the Doncaster; yet he ran away with the Oakleigh Plate, 5½ furlongs, with ten stone five in the saddle. What a heart the immortal Carbine must have had when he carried this very same weight to victory in his celebrated Melbourne Cup! Is it any wonder that Wallace and Trafalgar inherited great staying hearts?
THE AUSTRALIAN JOCKEY CLUB
AND RANDWICK
By KEN AUSTIN
There is a faded document hanging in the Secretary’s room at the Australian Jockey Club offices. It may be regarded as the coping-stone of what is now the most important Racing Club in Australia. This document reads as follows:—
“S. C. Burt, Esquire,—
“In consideration of your commencing the foundation of a Racecourse at Randwick, I hereby undertake to become liable to the extent of £50 for the purpose of paying the expense thereof.
“The revenues to be derived from the annual subscriptions and the sale of gates, booths, stands, etc., when completed, to be a security to me for whatever I may be called upon to pay under this guarantee.
“Sydney, Thirtieth June, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.