Racing: Statue of Phar Lap planned for Timaru

A trust has been formed to raise $300,000 to build a life-sized bronze statue of the immortal New Zealand-bred galloper Phar Lap.

The statue, to be erected at his birthplace of Timaru in South Canterbury, would show Phar Lap in full gallop, demonstrating his impressive 6.7m stride, New Zealand Thoroughbred Marketing said yesterday.

The statue will depict Phar Lap galloping over a map of New Zealand with a front hoof placed on Timaru. His regular Australian jockey Jim Pike will be the rider.

Phar Lap Charitable Trust project manager Derek Mayne said the statue would create an impressive presence.

"It will be cast in bronze on a marble base," Mayne said.

"The base of the statue will be a water fountain which will bring the statue to life with the sound of water emulating galloping hoof beats."

Joanne Sullivan-Gessler has been commissioned as the sculptor and project manager.

Sullivan-Gessler, who lives in Auckland and is formerly from South Africa, is an international sculptor with a string of prized Equine Art commissions to her name.

The trust is hoping to secure a Timaru-based professional to create the fountain and base for the statue.

The plan is to have the official opening of the statue in 2008, which marks the 150th anniversary of the Timaru Racing Club.

It is hoped the statue will become a tourist attraction and a cafeteria may open near it at the northern entrance to Timaru.

Phar Lap was born in Timaru on October 4 in 1926 and was purchased by Harry Telford at the Trentham Yearling sales in Wellington in 1928.

The name Phar Lap derives from the shared Zhuang and Thai word for lightning.

In his four years of racing he won 37 of his 51 races, including 14 wins in succession. He won the 1930 Melbourne Cup.

He died in California on April 5, 1932, when he suffered a haemorrhage.

His heart was donated to the Institute of Anatomy in Canberra and his skeleton to the Te Papa New Zealand National Museum in Wellington.

After preparations of the hide by a New York City taxidermist, his stuffed body was placed in the Australia Gallery at Melbourne Museum.

His heart was remarkable for its size, weighing 6.2kg, compared with a normal horse's heart at 3.2kg.

- NZPA