Australian's hearts swelled with pride when Phar Lap won what would sadly be his last race at the Agua Caliente resort in Mexico. This was his first race in North America and were it not for his untimely death, he would have taken the US by storm.
Sudden death in America
Phar Lap and jockey Billy Elliott won the lucrative race. Sixteen days later, on 5 April 1932, Phar Lap died in mysterious circumstances in San Francisco. Tommy Woodcock, the devoted strapper who had seen the horse through all of his races, was heartbroken.
Phar Lap was initially a failure as a racehorse, losing his first four races. However, in his four year career, Phar Lap won 37 of the 51 races in which he was entered, including the 1930 Melbourne Cup.
In 1930 and 1931, he won 14 consecutive races, which started in the St Leger and ended with his final race in Mexico. His win in the Agua Caliente Handicap was a momentous occasion for new owner David J Davis, who had purchased Phar Lap to race in North America.
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.
The official autopsy determined that the horse died through “some poison substance in his stomach.” Experts from the U.S. Bureau of Food and Drugs conducted an investigation and determined that lead arsenate sprayed on oak trees on the ranch was spread by the wind and into the stable of Phar Lap, causing his death.
Woodcock trained Phar Lap and he won the rich Agua Caliente Handicap. Shortly afterwards, on 5 April 1932, Phar Lap suddenly died in Menlo Park, California. Always devoted to the horse, Woodcock was with Phar Lap in his final moments. In 1946, Woodcock was initiated into Freemasonry, within the Smithfield Lodge.
Phar Lap passed the second horse, Reveille Boy, the mobs favourite, and with a blistering burst of speed, he won the race by three lengths. Francis P. Dunne, American racing authority, said: “Phar Lap's was the greatest run I have ever seen in any race by any horse – I've seen them all, Phar Lap was the greatest.
Sadly, Phar Lap died on April 5, 1932 at only five years old. Woodcock found the horse in severe pain and running a high temperature. Within a few hours, Phar Lap died in Woodcock's arms. An autopsy was performed and it was revealed that the gelding's stomach and intestines were inflamed.
Born in 1926 at Alexander Roberts' Seadown Stud, near Timaru, he raced in Australia, where he became a crowd favourite during the Great Depression. Between the autumn of 1930 and April 1932, Phar Lap won 32 of his 35 races.
Likewise, when Phar Lap is named “Lightning” by an Asian gentleman, it also occurred. In the DVD release, Burlinson says Woodcock believed the film was 90 percent true to tale. The film is richer for Woodcock's input, because he died less than two years after its release.
Phar Lap is a legend of Australian sporting history. His sensational rise from humble beginnings captured the public's imagination during the difficult years of the 1930s Great Depression. Phar Lap won 37 races from 51 starts, including the 1930 Melbourne Cup.
** Phar Lap had won career prize money of A70,123 pounds by 1932.
Davis to pay the £30 entry fee into 1929 Australian Derby to be run at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney. The film shows the Australian Derby as Phar Lap's first win, although his first win was actually six months earlier in the RRC Maiden Juvenile Handicap at Sydney's other main racecourse Rosehill Racecourse.
In the late 1920s he developed an association with the ... Pike'. He is best-known for his partnership with Phar Lap, on whom he won 27 races from 30 rides. ...
Although Secretariat still holds some track records to this day, and is arguably the faster horse, Phar Lap was a big weight carrier.
Discover many of the incredible moments in the life of Australia's greatest racehorse, Phar Lap. The Red Terror, also called Bobby by his strapper-cum-trainer Tommy Woodcock, was a red chestnut gelding born in New Zealand in 1926 and trained in Sydney by Harry Telford.
Phar Lap dominated the racing scene in Australia during a long and distinguished career. In the four years of his racing career, he won 37 of 51 races he entered. During 1930 and 1931, he won 14 races in a row. On 4 November 1930, ridden by Jimmy Pike, Phar Lap won the Melbourne Cup.
He won 14 races in 1931 alone, and won the 1930 Melbourne Cup while carrying an astonishing 62.6 kilogram handicap. His strength and endurance was so impressive people would talk about having 'a heart as big as Phar Lap'.
Prophetic words. The towering records of both champions underscore their superiority, both overall and at The Valley. Phar Lap had 51 starts for 37 wins, three seconds and two thirds. Winx had 43 starts for 37 wins and three seconds.
Having conquered Australia, Phar Lap was sent to North America. On 24 March 1932, he won the rich Agua Caliente Handicap in Mexico in record time. Invitations to race at major meetings flooded in, but the horse died 12 days later.
Phar Lap was initially a failure as a racehorse, losing his first four races. However, in his four-year career, Phar Lap won 37 of the 51 races in which he was entered, including the 1930 Melbourne Cup. He won 32 of his last 35 races.
Phar Lap became so successful that other horse trainers pulled out of the race when they heard he was competing. Phar Lap's greatest win was by 20 lengths in March 1930 at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. During his short life Phar Lap won 37 races out of the 51 he was entered in.
Horses loved him and in 1929, trainer Harry Telford asked him to care for Phar Lap full-time. The pair was inseparable; Woodcock often slept beside the beast and legend has it that Phar Lap (or Bobby, as Woodcock called him) would not accept food from anyone else.
He weighed in at just over 600kg. Therefore to win the 1931 Melbourne Cup, Phar Lap had to carry his massive frame plus another 11.5% of his body weight.