Phar Lap, Australia's greatest ever racer!

Phar Lap was born in Timaru New Zealand in 1926, a chestnut gelding standing 17 hands high. The yearling was one of those sent by Sea-down Stud owner Alec Roberts to the Trentham sales. Sydney trainer Harry Telford received a copy of the N.Z Thoroughbred Yearling Sale Catalogue in Jan 1928 and was impressed by the colt’s breeding. Telford did not have money to buy the horse and contacted U.S businessman David J Davis who was initially reluctant to commit to the unseen prize. But eventually Telford’s brother inspected the horse and asked a businessman in N.Z to bid.

Although Phar Lap was New Zealand-born and raised, he never raced there. Even in Australia, Phar Lap failed to place in 8 of his first 9 starts. But he went on to win 36 of his next 41 races, including the Race That Stops the Nation, the 1930 Melbourne Cup. Phar Lap often won by several lengths and sometimes even finished at half pace. In the misery of the Great Depression, Phar Lap’s exploits thrilled both NZ and Australia, and became a legend of Australian sporting history. His sensational rise from humble beginnings captured the public’s imagination in those years.

 Jockey Jimmy Pike rode Phar Lap to 27 wins in 30 races!

Phar Lap and his strapper, Tommy Woodcock, 

Australian Geographic

In the 1930 Melbourne Cup, when he was ridden again by Jimmy Pike, the Australian wonder-horse beat Second Wind by 3 lengths to claim one of his greatest victories. To show you how important the Melbourne Cup always was, it’s still a significant public holiday in Victoria.

In 1931 co-owners Harry Telford and David Davis sent the horse to America. Once in California, all Tom Woodcock's efforts were focused on acclimatising the horse. If Phar Lap lost, Woodcock would get paid nothing other than his trip costs, and he really wanted to show the Americans what he was made of. In the weeks leading up to the Agua Caliente Handicap in Tijuana Mexico,  Australians listened to and read whatever they could on Phar Lap's progress. 

In March 1932, Phar Lap and jockey Billy Elliott won the richest race in the world then!! A fortnight later in April 1932 Phar Lap’s strapper Tommy Woodcock, who’d seen the horse in all his races, found him suffering in severe pain and high temperature. Phar Lap quickly bled to death and Woodcock was devastated. In Australia the death was seen as a great tragedy; rumours quickly spread that the horse may have been poisoned. The autopsy showing the horse's stomach and intestines were inflamed, perhaps poisoned.

Phar Lap’s very large heart was returned to Australia for testing after his sudden death. Davis arranged for the heart to be sent to Sydney Uni for examination by thoroughbred expert Dr Stewart McKay and pathologist Prof Welsh. The wall of the left ventricle was removed, to inspect the muscle thickness. Noting the unusually large size of Phar Lap’s heart, Dr McKay asked Telford to donate it to Canberra’s Australian Institute of Anatomy. Although my father was sure American criminals poisoned the horse on purpose, debate continued as to whether Phar Lap died of an acute infection or from arsenic poison. Not surprisingly, the Institute of Anatomy collection became one of the key parts of Canberra’s National Museum.The mounted hide went to the Museum of Victoria in Melbourne, the skeleton to the National Museum of New Zealand in Wellington.

The death prompted an out-pouring of anger and mourning, and the saying a heart as big as Phar Lap’s came to refer to the horse’s staying power, used to indicate great courage. The heart is still suspended in a clear case, an icon of the National Museum’s collection. Letters sent to Harry Telford by the grieving public are now displayed with Phar Lap with other tributes in art and relics. Objects from his life: training saddle, shoes and tonic book tell the story of the wonder horse whose life abruptly ended.

Easily winning the 1930 Melbourne Cup

The Age

The Museum’s Phar Lap Collection includes the personal photo album of Phar Lap’s owner, David Davis. The album has 36 black and white photos, documenting each of Phar Lap’s race wins in Australia, with race details inscribed on the mounts. This is the only photo album known that features each of Phar Lap’s Australian wins. Davis died in 1959 and this album was discovered by his descendants in their California home in the 1990s.

The Museum’s Phar Lap collection also includes:
1. Jockey Billy Elliott’s Agua Caliente Club race programme
2. The 1932 program from Phar Lap’s last race, with personal inscription on the cover from Elliott.
3. Jockey Jim Pike’s 1930s riding boots and skull cap. 
4. An Akubra owned by Pharlap Dixon who worked on a Territory cattle property!
5. N.Z Thoroughbred Yearling Sale Catalogue Jan 1928, showing Davis WAS the buyer (£160).

In the 1983 film Phar Lap, he was as well-known for his mysterious death as for his great life successes. The film started when Phar Lap was bought on impulse by trainer Harry Telford. The horse lost his first races but Telford's faith in the animal was unshakable. Suddenly the horse became a winner, thanks to stable boy Tommy Woodcock. American promoter Dave Davis arranged for Phar Lap to be entered in several top races, where his long shot status resulting heavy losses for the criminal gamblers. Just after winning a major race in Mexico, Phar Lap collapsed and died; they assumed that the horse was murdered by gambling interests. Australia mourned.

Australia's greatest racehorse Phar Lap.

Museum of Victoria

National Mus Aus concluded that Phar Lap’s popularity was not just due to the fact he won so often. Rather in the impoverished Depression, the horse’s spectacular rise from humble beginnings expressed the dreams of ordinary Australians. 80+ years after he first went on display, the champion Phar Lap remains the most popular exhibit.