Jim Marks beyond compare as an equine veterinarian

[Wandering Eyes]

As an equine veterinarian Jim Marks was peerless, however, there was so much more to the man who brought new standards to his profession and all the while lived life to the full.

Known to all and sundry by the nickname Marksy, his exploits both professionally and socially have been a topic of conversation well beyond his Matamata base in the days since he passed away last week.

Marks lived in the horse-mad eastern Waikato town for all but the earliest of his 86 years, having grown up and gaining his early education in Wanganui, where his parents were both teachers.

With no veterinary faculty in New Zealand back in the 1950s, he gained entry to Sydney University via a one-year qualifying course at Victoria University’s medical school and went on to top his draft with an honours degree in veterinary science in 1959.

On his return to New Zealand, Marks was employed by a practice at Ngatea on the Hauraki Plains whose clients were mainly dairy farmers. Five years later he made the move that was to define his life, joining already established veterinarian Colin Thompson in the eponymous Matamata practice that became known as Thompson & Marks. 

Back then dairying was the dominant farming practice on the Matamata Plains, but thoroughbreds based in the stables precinct and district stud farms were becoming an increasingly significant force.

As clearly defined and almost opposite individuals, Thompson and Marks complemented each other perfectly, the former specialising in breeding matters and his partner putting his skills to work in the performance arena.

An inquiring mind and innate understanding of equine physiology combined to make Marks a leader in the field of diagnostic and performance-related issues.

Two major advances he pioneered in New Zealand were tie-back wind operations for horses with respiratory problems and electrocardiograms (ECGs) in identifying cardiac issues.

Now retired Hall of Fame trainer Jim Gibbs made good use of the Marks skillset, amongst various examples turning around the career of his talented but wind-afflicted gelding Jon to become a multiple stakes winner in the post-operative phase of his career.

“Marksy certainly knew his stuff, he really understood horses and what made them tick,” Gibbs said.

“He worked wonders with Jon and another among many I have to give him credit for was a good little mare called Duanette’s Girl. I had her set to go to Sydney, but she was very disappointing in her final lead-up race.

“I said to him you’d better put the (ECG) machine on her; I can still see him reading the data as it came out of the machine. ‘Nothing wrong with her, put her on the plane’.

“You wouldn’t believe it, from running down the track in her last run at home, she went over to Sydney and won the Chairman’s Handicap and the St Leger.”

The most celebrated of Marks’s relationships was with legendary trainer Dave O’Sullivan, their respective career trajectories being contemporaneous through the second half of the late 1960s and into the 1970s.

“As a performance vet in his day there was no-one to compare, he could really nail a problem and most times find a way through it,” recalled O’Sullivan’s son and highly successful training partner, Paul. “There were never any grey areas with Marksy, he always made it clear how you could manage a situation, how far you could go with a horse and when not to.

“I travelled a lot with him around Australia and we had a lot of fun, but the ultimate trip we did together was with Horlicks to Japan. He was never afraid to back his own judgement and when the mare won the Japan Cup he collected big time.

“Marksy was a larger-than-life character, you could say there were two of him. He could be mad as a March hare, he loved a good time, then in his professional approach there was none better.”

Marks was also generous in mentoring others, both within the veterinary profession and more widely amongst the many he engaged with. The Moroney brothers, Mike and Paul, were members of the wider group to have a rewarding relationship with the man they and others described as ‘New Zealand’s oldest teenager’.

A Moroney-trained horse that defined the Marks persona was The Aged Rocker, while perhaps Ballymore Stables’ best horse that he gave the green light to purchase as a yearling was dual New Zealand Horse of the Year Xcellent, who turned his $45,000 Karaka sale-ring price into stakes of $1.5 million. 

He also had immense success as an owner and breeder, amongst his many winners the Moroney-trained It’s My Sin, the O’Sullivan-trained Waikiki and steeplechaser Chief Ore, and Matamata Cup winner Call Minder, trained by long-time associates Wayne and Vanessa Hillis and later the dam of group One winner Juice.

A private funeral service has already been held, with plans for a wider celebration of his life at a date to be confirmed.

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