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. His death in the United States in 1932 prompted an outpouring of anger and grief.
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.
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.
A Giant Heart
But it's the heart that gets most of the attention. Phar Laps heart weighed just over 14 pounds, twice as large as a standard Thoroughbred's pumper. Some say this is the major reason why this horse was so great but I believe it was not the size of the heart but the quality of it.
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.
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.
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.
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's Achievements and statistics
Phar Lap ended his brief career with an incredible 37 wins from 51 starts, which is a heavy load for just a five-year-old. He won $66,738, which in the 1930's was a very healthy sum. He's rated as the 22nd top US racehorse of all time, despite having only one run in North America.
* The Group racing system was only introduced in 1978. According to australianracingrecords.com.au Phar Lap won 27 races that are now recognised as Group 1 events. ** Phar Lap had won career prize money of A70,123 pounds by 1932.
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'.
Phar Lap Wins the 1930 Melbourne Cup | National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
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 their book Phar Lap, authors Geoff Armstrong and Peter Thompson argued that Phar Lap was poisoned, but it was caused by a toxin from the family of bacteria Clostridium. The disease, called duodenitis-proximal jejunitis, seemed to explain all of the horse's symptoms.
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.
The gangly and awkward two-year-old from New Zealand became Australia's greatest racehorse. Between September 1929 and November 1931, Phar Lap ran 41 races and won 36 of them. His death in California in 1932 sent the nation into mourning.
Phar Lap had 51 starts for 37 wins, three seconds and two thirds. Winx had 43 starts for 37 wins and three seconds. Phar Lap contested the Cox Plate twice for two wins. Winx was unbeaten in four Plates.
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.
5 April 1932
Phar Lap arrived in Australia as a two-year-old. His name meant 'lightning' in the Thai language, and he lived up to it with his ability to finish races with a surge of speed. He was no looker, with warts all over his head.
This area is known as St Albans Park. It was here in November 1930 that Phar Lap spent the night before he won his historic Melbourne Cup. Why he was secretly housed at St Albans Stud is as follows.
Bred by Alick Roberts at Seadown Stud, near Timaru, Phar Lap was sold to Australia as a yearling in 1928 for 160 guineas, and never raced in New Zealand.
The chestnut gelding Phar Lap was born in New Zealand but raced in Victoria and New South Wales in the 1920s and 1930s. His victory in the Melbourne Cup in 1930, carrying the considerable weight of 65.6 kg, captured the imagination of Australians struggling though the Great Depression.
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.
When Silver Hawk won the Balwyn Handicap at Caulfield in 1953, it was reported in the press as Harry Telford's first win in Melbourne for 14 years. Telford retired from racing in 1957 and died in 1960. References: Reason, Michael, 2005, Phar Lap: A True Legend, Museum Victoria, Melbourne (revised edition 2009).
1.Man o' War. Foaled in 1917 at Nursery Stud, in Kentucky, and bred by financier August Belmont Jr., Man o' War has received wide acclaim as the best racehorse of all time.