1930, Phar Lap: Requiem for Big Red

Phar Lap and Tommy Woodcock. (New Zealand Herald Archive)

Phar Lap, the great-great-grandson of Carbine, galloped away with the hearts of all New Zealanders when he won the 1930 Melbourne Cup.

He started as the hottest favourite in Cup history at odds of 8-11 and, despite carrying a much greater weight than any of the other horses in the field, moved confidently into the lead at the top of the home straight and went on to win comfortably by three lengths.

Big Red won 37 of his 51 starts in a racing career from 1929-1932. These included the Agua Caliente Handicap in Mexico, then the world's richest race, the AJC Derby, the Victoria Derby and the W.S. Cox Plate twice as well as the Melbourne Cup.

Such was his commanding presence on the track that some people wanted to see him dead. On the Saturday before the 1930 Melbourne Cup a gunman shot at him but he was undeterred and went on to win not only the Cup but races on each of the four days of the Cup carnival.

This attempt on his life gave real impetus to the belief that, when he died two years later after winning the Agua Caliente Handicap, he had been murdered. Many theories abound about his death, though nothing has ever been proved. But there is no doubting Phar Lap's brilliance as a racehorse or the emotional impact he made on the nation as well as those who knew him best.

After his Melbourne Cup win, the Herald reported that one experienced observer judged him to be the perfect horse, even greater that his great forebear, Carbine.

"The great interest that Phar Lap has for me is that after writing about the degeneration of our racehorses for the last 20 years and bewailing the fact that they lack this, that and the other thing, all of a sudden there descends to us the ideal horse, who can stay and sprint and has such perfect muscle and bone that weight is of little consequence to him."

After his death, trainer Harry Telford mourned him as much for his personality as his ability to win races.

"He was an angel. A human being couldn't have had more sense. He was almost human; could do anything but talk. I've never practised idolatry, but by ... I loved that horse."

It was a sentiment reflected by a Herald editorial titled simply "Man and a horse" which commented on a wave of regret passing over the country in reaction to news of the champion's death.

"In a most extraordinary manner Phar Lap had won the affection of his 'countrymen'," it said.

Big Red, the angel horse, is our New Zealander of the Year for 1930, the year when he was at the height of his incomparable powers.

Further viewing
The MIghty Conqueror, Australian Screen, 1931

Phar Lap, Racing Hall of Fame

'Tales From Te Papa - Phar Lap', NZ On Screen, 2009