Phar Lap – a brief history of the Timaru-born hero

 

Story by Trustee Gerry Morris

 

Proclaimed as the greatest horse in the world, Phar Lap remains a hero in the eyes of New Zealanders and Australians almost 80 years after his death.

 

The gangly chestnut’s gritty spirit transcended the world of racing and entered the hearts of two nations during the years of the Depression when everyone needed a hero to give them hope.

 

Phar Lap’s character became almost human in people’s eyes: he was the misfit from the backblocks who became champion of the world.

 

From an unpromising debut at the National Yearling Sales at Trentham Racecourse in 1928, Phar Lap, better known as Big Red because of his rich red coat, recorded 37 wins out of 51 starts. These included the 1930 Melbourne Cup and the world’s richest race of its time, the 1932 Agua Caliente Handicap in Tijuana, Mexico. Other major wins were the Victoria and AJC Derbies and the WS Cox Plate (twice).

 

Even today, Phar Lap, whose name is Sinhalese and means lightning, is the benchmark for champions of the past, present and future.

 

There has always been contention between New Zealand and Australia as to who has the greater claim on the gentle-natured, big-hearted horse who won the affections of two nations.

 

We New Zealanders will always claim the high moral ground because ours is the country of his birth. The important parts of his dead body, however, are divided between this country and Australia: his skeleton in Te Papa National Museum, Wellington, his massive 14lb (6.4kg) heart in a jar in the Australian National Museum, Canberra and his hide on a model of his body in the Victoria Museum, Melbourne. The rest of him was buried in California, the place of his death.

 

Phar Lap was born on 4 October 1926 at Seadown near Timaru, a gangly chestnut colt with great promise. But he failed to impress buyers at his first public appearance at the Trentham sales on 24 January 1928.

 

However, one man wanted him. The instincts of Australian trainer Harry Telford were aroused after he read the colt’s pedigree four generations back from his parentage Night Raid out of Entreaty. Telford, who was battling financial ruin during the Depression, persuaded his client David Davis to put up 160 guineas ($336) to buy him.

 

Telford’s brother Hugh, who trained at Trentham, made the modest purchase on his behalf on a day when a more glamorous colt went at the sales for 230 guineas, a New Zealand record.

 

Phar Lap left Trentham and was shipped off to Australia. Davis was so unimpressed with his looks that he leased him to Telford for three years. Phar Lap went on to gain fame in the Telford Stables colours of red jacket with black and white hooped sleeves.

 

The lean, long-legged champion was unplaced only nine times in his racing career, eight of those as a two and three-year-old. After that he was unplaced only once - in the 1931 Melbourne Cup while bearing the enormous weight of 10st 10lb (68kg) after a questionable preparation. As a four-year-old, he won 14 races in succession.

 

Drama and controversy surrounded Phar Lap’s career. Criminals tried to shoot him the Saturday before his 1930 Melbourne Cup win. His strapper Tommy Woodcock, Telford, and regular jockey Jim Pike were each offered substantial bribes to ensure he didn’t win. They all refused.

 

When Phar Lap returned to Trentham, to the stables of Hugh Telford, in late 1931 for several weeks’ rest before travelling to the United States to race, thousands turned up to greet the horse known affectionately to those who knew him best as Old Boy, the Big Fellow, Bobby and even occasionally “you mongrel”.

 

At Trentham Racecourse, where he took his exercise, Phar Lap attracted crowds day after day. It was akin to the return of the prodigal son. The horse took all the attention with the good nature for which he was renowned and let several children at a time ride on his back. Casts of his hoof were taken for a charity auction.

 

The adoring kiwi crowd never guessed they were farewelling him at Wellington’s Queen’s Wharf forever when he set out on the marathon sea voyage to the United States and the last race of his life early in January 1932.

 

Jockey Jim Pike, who rode him for 27 wins and two seconds from 30 races, said before Phar Lap’s ill-fated trip to America: “The only way they’re going to beat Phar Lap over there is if they breed a horse with wings and get Kingsford-Smith to ride him.”

 

Phar Lap convincingly won his one race in the States – the world’s richest race, the Agua Caliente Handicap, on 20 March 1932.  The Americans lauded him as “the most remarkable horse ever to race in America” and “one of the greatest which ever lived”.

 

The greatness of Phar Lap can be shown in the difficulties he overcame to win that race. He had first spent several weeks on board ship to San Francisco – though he had a “de luxe cabin and exercise yard” built for him on the SS Monowai. He was then taken 900 kilometres by road to Tijuana – described as “boiling hot” - arriving on 28 January, a month before the race.

 

Ten days before the race, he split his hoof and, after treatment, he was fitted with heavy bar shoes for the first time. He was the top-weighted horse, carrying 9st 3lb (58.5kg), conceding 9lb (4kg) and more against some of the best horses in America, and he was racing on dirt for the first time.  He had not had a preparatory race.

 

Yet Phar Lap went on to win the Agua Caliente, coming from behind as was his usual practice to win easily by two lengths in a track record time of 2:2.8, clipping .2 second from the previous best time.

 

Less than three weeks later he was struck down in a San Francisco stable by a mystery illness and died an agonising death from a ruptured stomach on 6 April. The claim is that the autopsy was badly bungled and the real story has never been told.

 

Arguments have raged back and forth since then on the cause of his death, with a lingering suspicion that he was poisoned. But veterinarians who have examined the autopsy reports maintain that it is still a mystery what caused his fatal colic-like illness.

 

A life sized bronze statue of the champ with Jim Pike up will be unveiled near his birthplace at Timaru in November 2009, to recognize this outstanding thoroughbred.  Marquettes of the statue are available for purchase from the Trust.