Phar Lap, the Big Horse from Down Under

Phar Lap, a New Zealand-bred horse who raced primarily in Australia, was a race horse wonder. In his 51 races, he won 37 of them, and placed second or third in five others. He set records in at least eight of his stakes races. That is an amazing record.

He ran in three successive Melbourne Cups (the biggest race in Australia), and won one of them, and also won the Victoria Derby, the Australian Jockey Club Derby, the W. S. Cox Plate (twice), the Melbourne Stakes, the Linlithgow Stakes, and many other stakes wins.

Phar Lap was born in 1927, sired by Night Raid and out of Entreaty, by Winkie, in New Zealand. He was brought to Australia as a two year old. A bright red chestnut, he grew to be a huge 17.1 hands high, and for those reasons had several nicknames, among them "Big Red", "The Red Terror", "The Wonder Horse" and "The Big Fellow". But to his trainer Harry Telford and his groom, he was knows as just "Bobby". He was not a particularly well bred horse, and he was not beautiful, but he was gentle to handle and he was fast, very fast, often coming from behind with a great surge of speed at the end of the race to win.

He ran at a time when the whole world was in a great depression, and he was a cheap horse and his trainer was not a famous trainer, so this horse who came from nowhere to win at the top levels became a hero to many race track fans. They loved him because they saw him as a plain old nobody who became a champion by his own efforts, everybody's dream at the time.

But he was not liked by some of the crooked betting interests in Australia, who tried to kill him on the Saturday morning before his 1930 Melbourne Cup win. After this shooting incident, Bobby had a guard much of the time, and his trainer and groom were very cautious.

After proving himself the best in Australia, Phar Lap was invited to the Agua Caliente Handicap, a race to be held in Mexico and offering s $50,000 purse (big money in those times). The opportunity to go on to race in America where new challenges awaited and the purses were larger than most of the Australian ones was too much to resist, so off they went to a new adventure on a new continent. Phar Lap travelled by ship across the Pacific ocean, arriving in rainy San Francisco and then had a 400 mile trip in a horse van to Tijuana where the weather was very hot. And this for a horse that was facing winter back in his homeland.

Phar Lap had to carry 129 pounds, more than most of the other horses in the race, against some of the best horses in America who had come down to Mexico for a chance at the $50,000 purse, plus he was racing on dirt for the first time, not the nice, cushioned grass he had always raced on. On arrival he was starting to grow his winter coat, his body preparing for an Australian winter, not a Mexican spring. Then he suffered a painful injury to his heel, which usually means time off. Because of the hoof injury, Phar Lap had to wear heavy bar shoes for the first time in his life.

A lot to overcome! But the Australian Big Red was ready; Phar Lap broke slowly, slowly gained ground as he got his stride, and then circled the field from last place in his usual style to win easily by two lengths in the record time of 2:02 4/5, cutting 1/5 second from the previous track record.

He was a celebrity, all the newspapers rejoiced at his win, calling him the "Super Horse", the "Australian Wonder Horse" and more. He was taken north to prepare for his American racing career. Alas, it was not to be.

Before he had another race, in Menlo Park, California, he became ill, and despite all that could be done for him, he died on April 5, 1932, only five years old. It has long been suspected that there was a plot to have him killed in America, but no information has ever turned up, and the actual cause of death remains a mystery to this day.

"The Super Horse"
"The Australian Wonder Horse"
"Big Red"
"The Red Terror"
"The Wonder Horse"
"The Big Fellow"
"Bobby"