He followed up his 1930 victory by running eighth in the Cup in 1931 under a crushing 68 kg, the heaviest weight ever carried in the race.
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.
Phar Lap was a big horse, bigger than average that is. 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.
Heart as big as Phar Lap's. Phar Lap's heart is one of the icons of the National Museum's collection. It weighs 6.35 kgs. This is more than 1.5 times the weight of an average thoroughbred racehorse heart, which weighs 3–4 kgs.
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.
After Phar Lap's death Woodcock accepted a retainer from an American millionaire and horse breeder, Willis Sharpe Kilmer; he was obliged, however, to return home because he had contravened United States of America immigration laws. In 1934 he obtained a training permit from the Victoria Racing Club.
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 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'.
It showed that Phar Lap was given tonics designed to boost his performance that included arsenic, strychnine, cocaine and caffeine. The find gave credence to Woodcock's deathbed admission in 1985 that Phar Lap may have been given an overdose of a tonic before the horse died in 1932.
Although Secretariat still holds some track records to this day, and is arguably the faster horse, Phar Lap was a big weight carrier. They never competed against each other as their careers were decades apart, so it is unlikely the debate will ever be solved.
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.
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.
He was gelded, which probably helped him develop a better physique for racing. Geldings tend to grow taller than stallions and their necks have much less crest, lessening the weight on the front end of the horse. Sure enough, Phar Lap matured around 17 hands and his powerful back end showed great racing potential.
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.
For this race, Phar Lap was asked to carry an enormous 10st 10lbs, five pounds more than the weight-carrying record made by Carbine in 1890. About: One of the most inspiring Melbourne Cup victories is the story of Peter Pan.
Sash presented to champion race horse Phar Lap after winning the AJC Derby at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney on the 5th October, 1929.
ON THE MORNING of Tuesday, 5 April 1932, Phar Lap, the racehorse legend, mysteriously collapsed at a farm outside San Francisco 16 days after he won the Agua Caliente handicap in Tijuana, Mexico. He died in the arms of Tommy Woodcock, his dedicated strapper and mate.
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. Having conquered Australia, Phar Lap was sent to North America.
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.
He bought the property Braeside at Mentone, Victoria, and upgraded it into a horse training facility at great cost. Commitments at Braeside prevented Telford from accompanying Phar Lap on the fateful excursion to America. He trained very few winners after Phar Lap's death and eventually had to give up Braeside.
It was removed by Canadian farrier James (Jimmy) Ferguson Smith after Phar Lap cracked his front left hoof on the pebbly track in early March, a few weeks before he was due to run in the Agua Caliente handicap. Smith made a special bar shoe to support the hoof, which Phar Lap wore during the race.
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.
Of the 41 Kiwi-bred winners of the Melbourne Cup, Phar Lap stands out. Timaru-born, he became a ray of sunshine during the lean years of the Great Depression. In his first attempt at the Melbourne Cup in 1929, Phar Lap was strongly favoured but finished third behind a Kiwi-bred, -owned and -trained horse, Nightmarch.
The record shows Winx is the race's most prolific champion and probably its greatest winner. Phar Lap remains the most iconic and possibly the greatest. It's as close to the one result the Cox Plate hasn't produced in its long and stirring history – a dead-heat.
Phar Lap Wins the 1930 Melbourne Cup | National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.