PHAR
LAP
A
chestnut gelding, Phar Lap was foaled on 4 October 1926
in Seadown near Timaru in the South Island of New Zealand.
He
was sired by Night Raid from Entreaty by Winkie. He was
by the same sire as the Melbourne Cup winner Nightmarch.
Sydney trainer Harry Telford persuaded American businessman
David J. Davis to buy the colt at auction, based on his
pedigree.
Telford's
brother Hugh, who lived in New Zealand, was asked to bid
up to 190 guineas at the 1928 Trentham yearling sales.
When the horse was obtained for a mere 160 guineas, he
thought it was a great bargain until the colt arrived
in Australia.
The
horse was gangly, his face was covered with warts, and
he had an awkward gait. Davis was furious when he saw
the colt as well, and refused to pay to train the horse.
Telford had not been particularly successful as a trainer,
and Davis was one of his few remaining owners. 
To
placate Davis, he agreed to train the horse for nothing,
in exchange for a two-thirds share of any winnings. Telford
leased the horse
for three years and was eventually sold joint ownership
by Davis. In the four years of his racing career, Phar
Lap won 37 of 51 races
he entered, including the Melbourne Cup in 1930 with 9st
12lb (61.5 kg). In that year and 1931, he won 14 races
in a row.
From his win as a three-year-old in the VRC St. Leger
Stakes until his final race in Mexico, Phar Lap won 32
of 35 races. In the three
races that he did not win, he ran second on two occasions,
beaten by a short head and a neck, and in the 1931 Melbourne
Cup he
finished eighth when carrying 10 st 10 lb (68 kg). Phar
Lap at the time was owned by American businessman David
J. David and
leased to Telford. After their three year lease agreement
ended, Telford had enough money to become joint owner
of the horse.
David then had Phar Lap shipped to America in order to
race. Telford did not agree with this decision and refused
to go, so David
sent Tom Woodcock.
Phar Lap was shipped by boat to Agua Caliente Racetrack
near Tijuana, Mexico, to compete in the Agua Caliente
Handicap,
which was offering the largest purse ever raced for in
North America. Phar Lap won in track-record time while
carrying 129 pounds
(58.5 kg) and was ridden by Billy Elliot for his seventh
win from seven rides. From there, the horse was sent to
a private ranch near
Menlo Park, California, while his owner negotiated with
racetrack officials for special race appearances.
Early on 5 April 1932, the horse's strapper for the North
American visit, Tommy Woodcock, found him in severe pain
and having
a high temperature. Within a few hours, Phar Lap haemorrhaged
to death.
Much speculation ensued, and when a necropsy revealed
that the horse's stomach and intestines were inflamed,
many believed
the horse had been deliberately poisoned. There have been
alternative theories, including accidental poisoning from
lead insecticide
and a stomach condition. It was not until the 1980s that
the infection could be formally identified.
In 2000, equine specialists studying the two necropsies
concluded that Phar Lap probably died of duodenitis-proximal
jejunitis, an
acute bacterial gastroenteritis. However, in 2006 Australian
Synchrotron Research scientists said it was almost certain
Phar Lap was poisoned with a large single dose of arsenic
in the hours before he died, perhaps supporting the theory
that Phar Lap was killed on the orders of U.S. gangsters,
who feared the Melbourne-Cup-winning champion would inflict
big losses on their illegal bookmakers. No real evidence
of involvement by a criminal element exists, however.
Sydney veterinarian Dr Percy Sykes believes poisoning
did not cause the death. He said "In those days,
arsenic was quite a common tonic, usually given in the
form of a solution (Fowler's Solution)," and suggests
this was the cause of the high levels. "It was so
common that I'd reckon 90 per cent of the horses had arsenic
in their system." In December 2007 Phar Lap's mane
was tested to find if he was given repeated doses of arsenic
which, if found, would point to accidental poisoning.
On 19 June 2008, the Melbourne Museum released the findings
of the forensic investigation conducted by Dr. Ivan Kempson,
University of South Australia, and Dermot Henry, Natural
Science Collections at Museum Victoria. Dr. Kempson took
six hairs from Phar Lap’s mane and analyzed them
at the Advanced Photon Source in Chicago.
These high resolution x-rays detect arsenic in hair samples,
showing the specific difference "between arsenic,
which had entered the hair cells via the blood and arsenic,
which had infused the hair cells by the taxidermy process
when he was stuffed and mounted at the museum".
Kempson and Henry discovered that in the 30 to 40 hours
before Phar Lap’s death, the horse ingested a massive
dose of arsenic. "We can't speculate where the arsenic
came from, but it was easily accessible at the time,"
Henry said.
Following his death, Phar Lap's heart was donated to the
Institute of Anatomy in Canberra and his skeleton to the
New Zealand's National Museum in Wellington. After preparations
of the hide by a New York City taxidermist, his stuffed
body was placed in the Australia Gallery at Melbourne
Museum.
Phar Lap's heart was remarkable for its size, weighing
6.2 kg, compared with a normal horse's heart at 3.2 kg.
Now held at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra,
it is the object visitors most often request to see.
