Swats an affair of the heart for Gay and Barker

The role of the heart in the performance of an elite racehorse holds an almost mythological place in Australian thoroughbred history thanks to the legendary Phar Lap (NZ) (Night Raid {GB}), whose own enormous heart is displayed at the National Museum of Australia.

Every child that learns of Phar Lap's extraordinary racetrack deeds, highlighted by his immortal week at Flemington 90 years ago next week, knows of the role his enormous heart, some 1.5 times the normal size, played in arguably racing's greatest story.

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Dr Gay spent a specialist fellowship year working with Echo, a device for scanning the human heart. It occurred to the thoroughbred enthusiast that the technique could be equally applied to horses.

"It was during that year doing Echo that I bought into my first ever horse. I sat there one day and thought people hadn't been looking into the horse's hearts, given what we know about Phar Lap," Gay told TDN AusNZ.

"It turned out, it had been done, but it was overseas, through a woman called Lesley Young, who had published a lot of data about horse's hearts in general and looked at the correlation to performance. Glen and I were the first to do it in Australia."

Gay and Barker started out looking at tried horses, before deciding to focus on yearlings, completing around 1000 scans and tracking the performances of those horses going forward.

They confirmed that there did appear to be a correlation between certain characteristics of a horse's heart and its future athletic performance and happened upon a business idea.

Led by Barker, who continues to do the hands-on work with the horses, they established a business of working with leading buyers to provide information about horses through scans of their hearts ahead of sale.

"We can't tell you which ones will be fast, but we can tell you which ones have the cardio ability to perform at the highest level. You don't always get it right, but it’s as much about which ones not to buy. There's been many a sale where we see a million-dollar colt go through and we know it doesn't have the necessary engine," Gay said.

"It's an ultrasound of the heart. It’s exactly the same as you would do with a human. We do it on yearlings and we do it whilst they are in the box, with a handler. There is no sedation involved, it’s a non-invasive procedure."

From Shamus to Swats That

So where does Swats That fit into the story? Well, it’s true she does fit their selection criteria, but when she was tested it was not in advising prospective buyers but in Gay's role as the breeder of the Shamus Award filly.

One of the early success stories for Gay and Barker was a Snitzel colt which they had assessed for his prospective buyers ahead of him being sold for $220,000 at the 2012 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

The first win for that colt, to be called Shamus Award, was famously in the 2013 Cox Plate. He added the G1 Australian Guineas the following March, setting himself for a career at stud.

"We were able to select Shamus Award for Viv Oldfield and Sean Buckley. When Shamus Award retired, to acknowledge our contribution to his success, both Viv Oldfield and Sean Buckley said to us, we could have a service to Shamus Award for as long as he is a sire. So that was a free nom each year,' Gay said.

"We have been mates with Ricky Surace and Rick Jamieson and respected their breeding prowess and we asked them their opinion of what mare would go well with Shamus. Off the back of that we bought Is It A Mosquito at the Inglis Sale for $7000, and we sent her to Shamus."

The first filly they bred from Is It A Mosquito (Bel Esprit), to be named My Sweet Fish, was a little small for their liking, and didn’t fit Gay and Barker's heart criteria. Sent through the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, she was purchased for $45,000 and has subsequently won two of her nine starts.

Ticking all the boxes

The next filly did tick all their boxes and they were happy to race her themselves, sending her to Troy Corstens to train.

"The first prep they didn’t do a lot with her, but when she came back to him into the stable as a 2-year-old, Troy, who does a lot of work now with data and heart rates, was confident early on that she was something special," Gay said.

"She then had two trials, and really impressed, won them softly, within a couple of strides. Johnny Allen rode her in both trials and was pretty keen to stick with her."

Swats That debuted in a $250,000 VOBIS race at Bendigo in March and landed the prize, before heading to Sydney, where the heavy track and the trip north proved too much and she was unplaced in a G2 Percy Sykes S.

"We just put her away and we brought her back this preparation and had mapped out exactly the races we would go to in July," he said. "The plan has always been to have her peaking for her Grand Final this Saturday."

After being beaten by September Run (Exceed And Excel) in the Listed Cap D'Antibes at Flemington in September, Swats That was a dominant winner of the G3 Scarborough S. at Moonee Valley before winning the G3 Thoroughbred Club S., at Caulfield earlier this month.

That has set her up for a shot at the best sprinting 3-year-olds in the country on Saturday, including a horse that Gay and Barker tried to buy as a yearling .

"We were the underbidder on Farnan at the Magic Millions, so we know a lot about him," he said.

"If Farnan is at his best, he’ll obviously be very hard to beat. September Run has already beaten us, so she has to be respected. I’d like to see Farnan and Anders and a couple of others set a strong pace. I don't want a softly run Coolmore I want a nice hard run race and then with the hope we can sit off the pace, and be nice and relaxed, and swoop on them."

The one mis-step

Victory on Saturday might make Gay and Barker look very smart, but Gay knows exactly how big a role luck has played in the Swats That story. Indeed, the fact they no longer own Is It A Mosquito speaks to the rolling game of fortune that is thoroughbred racing.

"The one thing we did do wrong, is that we had the dam in foal to Shamus Award a third time, and Shamus wasn't going that well at the time and the market was really off him. One of the sales companies came and looked at Swats That and they said, she would probably struggle to make a sale because of that Shamus factor, and the mare herself hasn't done anything," he said.

"We thought to ourselves, this is not going to be commercial, so we sold the mare through the Inglis Sale for $5500.

"The guy who has got her is a lovely guy and good on him. He's gone back to Shamus this year and has got a 2-year-old Shamus filly that has just been broken in

"We are very fortunate to have Swats That. We decided to race her and we put all our friends and family in to help pay and race the horse and she hasn't disappointed."

Gay has three other mares he breeds with, and one of them is now in foal to now Rosemont Stud stallion Shamus Award, who is enjoying a terrific run of form this season, with 24 winners and three stakes winners to date already.

He (owner, Dr Gay) also has another stakes runner this Saturday in Succeed Indeed (Akeed Mofeed {GB}), who runs in the G2 Wakeful S. and is then destined for the G1 VRC Oaks net Thursday. She was purchased through the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale in 2019.

"She was another one that ticked our boxes. We liked the mating, we liked the heart scan, and we liked her on type. I said to Troy, this is one I really liked, and he'd seen her and loved her as well. We said, if she goes for less than $80,000, I’d take a leg, and she went for $45,000. She's done very well," he said.

As for Swats That, Gay thinks that no matter what happens on Saturday, this voyage of the heart is far from finished with.

"Swats That is part of a journey that has been going for 12 years for Glen and myself and for it to end up with a horse like this is great," he said.

"We are into our breeding, and she will be a really commercial broodmare when the time is right."