Sport: Inferiority Complex

The sleek, black colt looked like a winner. Highbred and proud, Landau moved out of the paddock under the royal purple, gold and scarlet silks of his owner, Queen Elizabeth II. But his reputation had preceded him to the U.S. Every horseplayer who had come to Laurel, Md. for the third running of the Washington, D.C. International knew the skittish three-year-old as a notorious equine neurotic. Balky as a kid who always refuses to perform for company, he had an exasperating habit of quitting in a close stretch drive.

Still, the Queen did not quit on her colt. Like an anxious modern mother, she turned to psychiatry for help. There were experts in the Laurel grandstand who believed that Landau had been cured of his inferiority complex and was ready to go.

Techniques for Twitches. Before Landau was flown to the U.S., a blue-eyed pixy named Charles Brook—with a beard remarkably resembling Sigmund Freud’s —commuted for weeks between his Har ley Street office and the royal stables outside Newmarket. A psychotherapist who began his professional career as a corporation lawyer, Brook would stride past the sneering unbelievers of shed row with magnificent aplomb and godirectly to Landau’s stall. There, standing close to his patient’s side, he would place his left hand on the colt’s withers, his right hand on the smooth, black belly. For 20 minutes, horse and horse doctor would meditate in silent communion. “I don’t go in much for talking to horses,” said Brook. What he does, he explained, is “change nervous impulses,” rejigger them until his patient’s mind works to full capacity.

Therapist Brook learned his technique the hard way—working on humans. With his delicate touch, he says, he has treated insomnia, twitches, failing eyesight, ulcers, bad tempers and alcoholism. He has even helped golf addicts to lower their scores. When he discovered that his laying on of hands worked in absolute silence, he was ready to take on dumb animals.

Hand-Ride for Fisherman. Now and then, after Brook’s therapy, horses have run better. Even Landau went well for a while on English tracks last summer. But at Laurel last week, the neurotic colt faced a soggy track and stiff competition from six other fine thoroughbreds.

The crowd made Banassa, a French filly, the favorite, but careful handicappers hedged their bets and put something down on Sonny Whitney’s game little colt. Fisherman. Hand-ridden almost all the way by Jockey Eddie Arcaro, and barely beating Banassa, Fisherman paid off.

As for Landau, he had one of the worst relapses of his career. He made a fine, fast start and led the field for a mile; then, in the backstretch, he simply quit. Said a busted bettor: “That horse is so bad off, not even a head shrinker could fix him. His trouble is he knows he’s inferior.”