Champion without peer
 Night Raid - Entreaty by Winkie
Bred in 1926 by A.J. Roberts, Timaru
51 starts, 37 wins, 3 seconds, two thirds; unplaced nine times.
Prizemoney: £66,738
A battling Sydney trainer, Harry Telford, selected Phar Lap from the 1928 New Zealand National Yearling Sale catalogue and purchased him for 168 pounds. Needing a backer to help him keep the horse, Telford found David Davis who agreed to buy Phar Lap and lease him back to Telford for three years. The lease expired in February 1931; Telford then paid Davis 4,000 pounds for a half-share in the horse.

Quite simply, Phar Lap, or "Big Red" as he was popularly known, dominated Australian racing and the public imagination in a way that no horse had done since Carbine and very few horses (perhaps only Tulloch and the Australian-bred Kingston Town) have done since. Ridden by the great Jim Pike in thirty of his starts, Phar Lap strode through the major races of Australia's turf calendar: the AJC Derby, VRC Derby, Rosehill Guineas, Chipping Norton Stakes, W.S. Cox Plate, Melbourne (now Mackinnon) Stakes and Underwood Stakes. Most famously, he won the 1930 Melbourne Cup by three lengths in an atmosphere of high tension after an attempt on his life and threats to "nobble" him before the race. That was one of an astonishing series of four major victories Phar Lap recorded in the space of eight days during the Cup Carnival at Flemington.

The pinnacle, and the end of Phar Lap's career came in the United States. Ridden by Australian jockey Billy Elliott, he ran in the 10-furlong (one-and-a-quarter miles or 2000m) Agua Caliente Handicap (then the richest race offering $US100,000 to the winner) on 20 March 1932. He won it so impressively that the victory is still recalled as one of the finest performances by a foreign horse in North America. Racing at one stage 50 lengths behind the field, Phar Lap charged into the lead with 1200 metres to go. He finished the race two lengths in front, eased down, in a new track record time of 2:02.8.

American turf historian B.K. Beckwith said "I’ve never seen an individual performance of more astounding stature than given by this Australian colossus at Agua Caliente."

Less than three weeks later, on 5 April 1932, Phar Lap collapsed in his stall and died. Two autopsies offered accidental poisoning and mouldy feed as possible causes of death. Recent analysis of the autopsy reports suggests that a bacterial infection found in horses that have travelled long distances may have killed the great horse.

Did you know….

• Phar Lap – at least the stuffed version of him (skeleton and skin), and his unusually large heart – is on display in the Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

• "Phar Lap" is Thai for "lightning". Some modern racehorse owners like to give their horses names with seven letters in memory of Phar Lap – and in the hope of owning a horse as good as he was!

• It may only be co-incidence, or it may be fate but one of those seven letter names was given to a descendant of Phar Lap’s full sister. That horse did become a champion, as celebrated by Australian racegoers as Phar Lap himself. Her name is Sunline.

• The Phar Lap Stakes is run at Rosehill in Sydney each year, and the Timaru racetrack is named the Phar Lap Raceway.

• Phar Lap briefly returned to New Zealand en route from Australia to the United States. He was stabled at Trentham Racecourse for a few days in the summer of 1932.

More information:

For a comprehensive collection of information & images about Phar Lap’s life, career and legend visit the Museum Victoria’s own wonderful Phar Lap site: www.museum.vic.gov.au/pharlap/