Phar-Lap

He was born in Timaru, New Zealand in 1926, by Night Right and Entreaty, though he was taken to Australia at the beginning of the Big Depression, when he was two years old, and it was there where he started to run, arriving to run up to 51 races of which he won 37, and in another five he was in the second and third places.

The truth is what when Phar-Lap arrived to Australia, his new owner David J.Davies did not have many hopes in the horse whom he had just bought, and was truly angry with the trainer, Harry Telford, who had insisted to him in the purchase of the horse, and particularly when he saw him in his arrival to Australia, thin, in a sorry state and with all the head full of warts.

Tired of spending more money, he hired the horse to his trainer during three years, taking at his charge to pay the fodder and the preparation of the horse, in him he had full confidence, and more when he knew the origin of the horse.

He was a sorrel horse, very tall, a reason whereby he was nicknamed in many ways, such as "Big Red", "The Red Terror" o "The Wonder Horse", though in the stable was known as Bobby, but what is sure is that he was born to be a champion, an unforgettable horse, and who will be remembered forever.

Phar-Lap physically was not a very handsome horse, but he was a delightful horse of easy treatment who won the affection, not only of his trainer, who never was famous, and his groom, Tom Woodcock, also of all his supporters, and a champion horse through his own efforts, being able to earn Usd 133,478.

He was a very fast horse, and with a great speed point, whereby in the races came always from the final positions like a shot, to go to the winning post to win.

In his four first races in 1929, Phar-Lap did not get a place, not getting his first victory until 27 April in Rosehill Racecourse. In the four following races, he did not get a place either, until he arrived in the second place in the Sydney Tatersalls Chelmsford Stakes on 14 September.

He ran three times consecutively the race most famous of Australia, inclusive today, The Melbourne Cup, winning one of them in 1930 and equally he won the Victoria Derby,The Australian Jockey Club Derby, The Melbourne Stakes, twice The W.S.Coxx Plate and many other races of Stakes.

But maybe, for what Phar-Lap is remembered, most out of Australia, was for his attempt of murder on 1st of November of 1930 by persons related with the bets in Australia, in which the horse was not murdered thanks to his groom, Tom Woodcock who going back from the morning training to the stable saw how somebody shot from a car to Phar-Lap and placed the horse against a wall, protecting him as if he were shield with his own body and with the pony whom he was ridden, who even threw him to the ground, but the car ran away and Phar-Lap was unhurt, an episode which was reflected in a film called like the horse in 1984, having to assign a watchman to the horse permanently in order to ensure his protection.

Three days later the horse won The Melbourne Cup inclusive obtaining the top of the race with 62,5 kilos, four kilos more than any other horse of four years old and more who had run in the Cup. In The Melbourne Cup of 1931, they stewards assigned to him 68 kilos, which he was not able to surpass, finishing in the eighth position in his last Australian race.

Having won everything in Australia, the horse was invited to run in Mexico in The Agua Caliente Handicap, with a purse of Usd 50,000, a big amount of money at that time, whereby they did not resist to bring the horse to run in America, in spite that was an adventure, the trip and the fact to go to a new country, a new continent and a new kind of races.

Moreover, it was the first time in his life that the horse was going to run on dirt, since he had always run on grass in Australia, and he was on the way to a very hot climate, when in Australia was winter, a fact that was reflected upon arriving to Mexico, when it was seem that the horse was with winter hair.

The horse began the trip by sea, crossing all the Pacific Ocean until the arrival to San Francisco where he landed in a van for horses and he traveled during 6,400 kilometers up to Tijuana in Mexico.

He was the horse who carried more weight in the race and he confronted to the best American horses of the time, who were in their field, whereby Phar-Lap did not have an easy task.

All was complicated, even more, when the horse suffered a wound in the hoof, which for another horse it would have meant the withdrawal in the race, but not for Phar-Lap.

The race arrived, everything was ready for the exit, and they launched from the starting gates, departing very slow Phar-Lap went during all the race in the last position, until he arrived to the final straight, and with his tipical style, he came from the final places as a large wave to win the race by two lengths in a record time of 2:02:4/5. From then, they decided to begin the American Career with Phar-Lap.

He ran only in one occasion, The Menlo Park in California, since the horse, after that race got sick, with a very high fever, and with very serious sufferings, and in spite of doing all the possible to make him recover, on 5 April of 1932 he died from a haemorrhage being only five years old.

The autopsy was practiced to Phar-Lap, and it showed that both the stomach and the intestines were very swelled up, which could be of a possible poisoning.

A second autopsy indicated a colic as cause of the death. Other investigations proved that the trees of the ranch where Phar-Lap was, had been disinfected with a product which contained insecticide, and could be that Phar-Lap could have eaten from them.

Other pointed out that the cause of his death could have been a negligence of his groom who could have, by error, administered a double dose of the Fowler´s Solution, a medicine which contains arsenic and which serves to stimulate the appetite of the horse.

The cause of the death continues to be a mystery today, and many have thought that there was a plot to murder the horse in USA.

The truth is that to say Phar-Lap is to speak about a legend, one of the great horses of all times.

Phar-Lap 1926	Night Raid	Radium	Bend Or
			Taia
		Sentiment	Spearmint
			Flair
	Entreaty	Winkle	William The Third
			Conjure
		Prayer Wheel	Pilgrim's Progress
			Catherine Wheel