| Phar Lap's list of race victories reads like a roll-call | | | | Lap would only fail to place one time, in the |
| of Australia's greatest races: Melbourne Cup, Cox | | | | Melbourne Cup of 1931. His powerful leg muscles |
| Plate (twice), Victoria Derby, AJC Derby, Futurity | | | | and strong heart were a credit to him as he won |
| Stakes, Chipping Norton Stakes, Underwood | | | | race after race, including 14 from 16 as a four |
| Stakes, Memsie Stakes, Rosehill Guineas, Craven | | | | year-old. |
| Plate, VRC St Leger, Chelmsford Stakes. Add to | | | | Phar Lap's winning ways did not please everyone. |
| that the world's richest race (Agua Caliente | | | | On Derby Day, November 1 1930, someone tried |
| Handicap) and a sad demise and you soon realise | | | | to keep him from running the Melbourne Stakes |
| why Phar Lap inspired a movie in his honour and | | | | by taking a shot at him. He was unhurt, thanks to |
| was a household name in Australian and abroad. | | | | the quick thinking of Tommy Woodcock, and |
| Phar Lap was born October 4th, 1926 in New | | | | went on to win the race that day. He also won |
| Zealand before being sold as a yearling to David J. | | | | the Melbourne Cup three days later despite a |
| Davis, an American-born sportsman living in | | | | troublesome and delayed float trip. By the end of |
| Australia, for 160 guineas. Davis' first view of the | | | | that week the horse nicknamed Big Red had |
| giant 17.1 hand chestnut, whose name is Thai for | | | | survived a shotgun attack and won four races. |
| "lightning", was not a positive one. He had bought | | | | Phar Lap went to Mexico by ship with luxurious |
| the colt based on his pedigree alone, and he had | | | | accommodation by equine standards to compete |
| thought he was really getting a good bargain, until | | | | in the $100,000 Agua Caliente Handicap. Even |
| he saw the horse. Phar Lap arrived in Australia | | | | though he had travelled such a long way, and also |
| thin and rather clumsy, with an awkward gait. He | | | | had an injured hoof, he won the race and proved |
| also sported warts all over his big head. | | | | to the racing world that he really was the wonder |
| Davis was quite angry about how Phar Lap looked | | | | from Down Under. |
| and moved, and even angrier at the trainer Harry | | | | Following that win Phar Lap next travelled to the |
| Telford, who had talked him into buying the horse. | | | | United States. He was enjoying a spell at a |
| He decreed that he would not waste any more | | | | private ranch in Menlo Park, California while his |
| of his money by having the horse trained, and | | | | owner was busily negotiating more races for him. |
| leased him to that same trainer. It would be | | | | Early in the day on April 5, 1932, Tommy |
| Telford's responsibility to pay for the training and | | | | Woodcock discovered that Phar Lap looked and |
| feeding of Phar Lap, and then he would be able to | | | | acted ill. He took the horse's temperature, found it |
| keep two-thirds of the money that the horse | | | | was elevated, and then discovered that the horse |
| won. Telford had long studied the pedigrees of | | | | was in considerable. By midday Phar Lap began to |
| racehorses, and felt that Phar Lap's breeding was | | | | hemorrhage and soon after died. Woodcock was |
| good enough that he had champion potential. He | | | | inconsolable, throwing himself onto the horse's |
| was gelded so that the young horse would better | | | | body and sobbing. |
| concentrate on his racing. | | | | Australians, Americans, and people around the |
| "Bobby", Phar-Lap's stable nickname, was | | | | world were shocked and stunned at the sudden |
| attended by a stable boy called Tommy | | | | death of Phar Lap. An autopsy was done, and it |
| Woodcock. The horse was known to be a good | | | | was discovered that the horse's intestines and |
| natured prankster, and enjoyed playing little tricks | | | | stomach were much inflamed, which led to the |
| on Woodcock. Phar Lap was so devoted to the | | | | belief he had been poisoned. Rumours started to |
| stable boy that he would not eat unless | | | | fly that Phar Lap had been poisoned deliberately. |
| Woodcock came to be in the stall with him. | | | | The ranch where he was staying had recently |
| Phar Lap got off to rather a slow start in racing, | | | | been sprayed with an insecticide that contained |
| not placing at all in his first four races. Finally, on | | | | arsenic. It was also rumoured that Tommy |
| April 27th 1929, he won the Maiden Juvenile | | | | Woodcock had accidently given the horse too |
| Handicap at Rosehill when ridden by 17 year-old | | | | much of a tonic that contained arsenic. Called |
| apprentice Jack Baker. Once Phar Lap ran a | | | | Fowler's Solution, it was given to horses in order |
| strong second in the Chelmsford Stakes at | | | | to help them have an appetite. Scientists later |
| Randwick on September 14 1929, he really began | | | | confirmed that, whether intentional or not, Phar |
| to get attention from the racing community as a | | | | Lap almost certainly died from an overdose of |
| whole. For the rest of his all too short life, Phar | | | | arsenic. |