IS the Newfoundland Pony truly a breed?

Is it or isn't it?  It's surprising that this question still gets debated today.  Of late, there is a concerted effort by a group of owners and breeders to influence the public, stating that the pony is not a breed, it is "only" a heritage breed. Other people call it a "mutt".   Dr. Andrew Fraser, a noted veterinarian and biologist, author of the "bible" on the Newfoundland Pony, felt so strongly that it is a breed that he wrote this on the back cover of his most famous book:
"For more than two centuries, Newfoundlanders took their small native horse for granted, but a basic question is whether the Newfoundland Pony exists as a true breed. This book tells how this pony has been bred exclusively on this insular location, without significant fresh blood introduced for a hundred years. It is therefore a breed of horse in all senses except for the existence of a stud book."  
Dr Fraser wrote this on the verge of a registry being created. 

Dr Fraser posted a quote in this book that is also important for people to read and know:
"The late Mr. and Mrs. Speed had become convinced that the purebred norms of native Moorland Pony had become ruined by careless cross-breeding and a general failure to preserve them. In desperate tone they wrote the following about British Ponies:
     The ponies came first. A long process of evolution produced them in nature's mould. Man quickly and easily converted them into horses by crossbreeding and selection, bu then proceeding in spendthrift fashion to disperse or debilitate the raw material from which he could have reinvigorated these artificially-produced horses. Very little care would have saved the ponies. They are frugal and economical and need no domestication. It was only necessary to save them from exploitation and mongrelization. The rest of the world believed that leisured and horse-minded Britain had saved its purebred ponies, and we have had the chance to do so. There is an imminent and sorry disillusionment in store for all of us on this point.  A visit to the show ring can tell us why, for there it is patent that a true and valuable pony has usually little chance against a showy, crossbred, but genetically worthless animal.
With a project of naturalistic pony breeding, the duo of Speeds duly came to the rescue..."

​ If you can find this book, do get it. It's a gem as are his other Newfoundland Pony books.