Guest Post: Phar Lap
April 17th, 2012 at 7:00 am by David FarrarA guest post by Peter Freedman:
IF ANY AUSTRALIAN EVER CLAIMS PHAR LAP…….
You have my permission to do him grievous bodily harm. Just make sure the last words he hears before those of his Maker are “Phar Lap was a bloody Kiwi, you nong!”
Nong is of course an Australian expression. It can be used in such endearing phrases as “Ya gotcha trackie daks on back ter frint, yah silly nong!”
If Phar Lap is claimed by a thick Aussie ask him two questions:
Q1 “Where wereya born?” He will, of course, reply : “Orstralya, ya nong”
Q2: Does that make YOU Australian?” “Of course it duz, drongo, whatareya?”
Then quietly mention that Phar Lap was born in Timaru. That will almost certainly mean your new mate will suddenly find his bladder is full to the top and he can’t possibly come back till next week and it is a shame about you and your missus leaving for Timbuktu in two hours.
Phar Lap’s record reads: Starts 50, Wins 36, 2nds 3, 3rds 2. I look upon him as the best racehorse ever. Looks good but stats are cold things. The story of Phar Lap must be one of the most extraordinary yarns about an animal and the humans who knew him that ever has been told.
Other punters will name his superior and the fun part is that you can never be wrong. You can’t compare a horse that races in the 1930s, with one of today, the courses are different and knowledge of the horse’s frame has changed with technology. In the 1930s, when Phar Lap ran, trainers worked with intuition, not science.
Two Melbourne men nearly went to jail over a fight as to which horse was better – Phar Lap or an NZer called Carbine. Charged with offensive behavior, the men were lucky the magistrate had a sense of humour. He freed them so long as they continued the argument in a “quiet and gentlemanly manner”.
Only one man originally saw how great Phar Lap could be. He was a struggling trainer, Harry Telford, a man with a brutal temper. He didn’t have a bean, but he knew his racehorses. He chose Phar Lap even before he had seen him.
He was leafing through a sales catalogue for Trentham when a horse’s pedigree caught his eye. He found the horse, though seemingly poorly bred (his Mum, Entreaty broke down after her first race) had royal blood if you went back far enough. Ironically the blue blood in his background belonged to a horse named……..yes, it was Carbine!
Night after night for a month, he went back over the pedigree again and again. Not only did each sleepless night make him more convinced this one could be a champion, but could be the best horse of time.
But Telford had no money, it was the depression and all the wealthy had all the spoils.
So Telford managed to persuade a rich American, Dave Davis, to buy the horse without seeing it. Phar Lap was bought for 160 guineas, almost nothing even in those days.
When Davis saw his purchase he said: “Sell him, he looks like a camel” True, he had boils all over his face and was very skinny. But he didn’t have two humps, he had a man who believed in him and blue blood in his veins.
So Telford leased PL from Davis for three years for nothing. If the horse won any money Davis would get a share.
Both men were happy. Davis was mega rich and had nothing to lose, Telford whose record to that time was very ordinary, had three years to pursue his dream.
When PL first appeared on a course, people laughed at him. Some joker said to call him Lightning because he was so slow.
That much seems to be true. What happened in the next few moments is subject to debate. We do know that Telford, having no sense of humour, rejected the Lightning name, but only after serious consideration. He refused, he said, because the name had too many letters .
It has to have seven letters he declared.
Why seven?
“The three last three Melbourne Cup winners all had seven letters, It has got to be seven.”
Then the stories differ.
The generally accepted view is that an Oriental gent nearby suggested “Phar Lap” because that was a Sinhalese for lightning. The story sometimes says that word was farlap and Telford only accepted it when it was pointed out to him that he could change the “f” to a “ph”. Nice yarn but definitely not so.
But did the Oriental ever exist? The authoritative written work on Phar Lap, while pointing out the words are Thai, doesn’t even mention the gent from Asia. But a researcher met the man’s sister who insisted her medical student brother, Aubrey Moor Ping, HAD named Phar Lap.
Other true stories about this, the greatest of all horses include.
• He ran a poor last in his first race. He took five starts to land a win, and was unplaced in his next four. Then he ran a second.
• After that, he was third twice, then won 31 races, a sequence broken only by two thirds and two seconds.. He followed that up with eight more wins, before finishing well back in the 1931 Melbourne Cup under a record weight.
• He ended his career winning his only international run, donkey licking smart field at Aguq Caliente in New Mexico
• He nearly didn’t make it to his Melbourne Cup victory. After an attempt on his life (see below) he was smuggled out to a safer property. When it was time for him to leave for Flemington the horse float wouldn’t start. When he finally got there, just minutes before the race the crowd roared: “He’s Arrived!”
And by the time he died he was, and will inevitably remain, the most popular athlete in Australia, human or non human.
So what happened? How did this seeming carthorse became the greatest equine in the world?
Two things:
1. The size of his heart, Literally. After he died, Phar Lap’s heart was weighed in at 6.2 kgs, nearly twice the normal size.
2. A man who seemingly didn’t have a heart at all. Telford decided early that his new horse had ability he was just lazy. So he put the gelding through a training schedule that would have killed a lesser horse. But Phar Lap thrived on it.
Even in death, Phar Lap caused controversy. He died just after his New Mexico race and fans to this day still believe he was killed by bookmakers who knew how much he was going to cost if he lived.
After all, bookies had tried before. Just days before his effortless Cup win there was an attempt to shoot the horse from a moving car. Phar Lap reared and his regular attendant, Tommy Woodcock put his body between the car and the horse to save him.
Almost certainly the death came from natural causes – colic due to munching wet grass.
Some of the people who also lived the Phar Lap legend met sticky ends. His first jockey, Cashy Martin, did in a race fall while still in his teens. Like Telford, he knew Phar Lap was going to be great and lived long enough to see him win his Melbourne Cup.
Tommy Woodcock and the horse were inseparable. Woodcock lived to a ripe old age and nearly trained a Melbourne Cup winner himself when his horse, Reckless, finished a close second.
After Phar Lap, Telford never had a decent horse again. He over reached himself financially and died in 1960.
His regular jockey, Jim Pike, won a fortune and then lost it on gambling and booze. He died in a home for destitutes.
Dunno what happened to Davis, the rich Yank and no one cares. He was a liar and a rogue and publicly insisted that the first time he clapped eyes on the horse he knew he had a champion.
Phar Lap was one of only two sports figures who were so good the authorities tried to change the rules in order to make them lose.
And, of course, the Aussie battlers loved him. It was in the depression and Bobby, as he was known affectionately, and his battler trainer were sticking it up the toffee noses.
There have been many good horses and will be many more. But there was only one Phar Lap. His body, stuffed and mounted is in Melbourne Museum. It looks so lifelike you can almost hear him thinking: “Let’s give those toffee noses just one more hiding, Jim”
An interesting history of Phar Lap.
Related posts:
- Guest Post: Gambling in Australia
- Guest Post: A quiz
- Guest Post: Martha Stettinius on Dementia
- Guest Post: Ten favourite movies
April 17th, 2012 at 7:05 am
For crying our loud DPF; why don’t you just complete the social experiment and get Phillip Ure to write guest posts as well? I realise that it must smart that WO has overtaken you and NZ’s most-read political blogger, but this is NOT the way to win your audience back IMHO.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 7:13 am
Well said KS.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 7:43 am
I like horses too.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 7:44 am
This story should be accompanied by a knitting pattern.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 7:49 am
DPF- couldn’t you just sponsor a puppy instead?
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 8:01 am
DPF: What the hell have we done to ‘deserve’ this???
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 8:07 am
Mr Freedman’s contribution is a shining example of how blandness & mediocrity are not impediments to a career in journalism.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 8:16 am
The story shines through and wins by a length and a nose, or maybe an upturned middle finger.
Vote:But oh dear, its upset the resident goldfish who have turned green for some reason.
April 17th, 2012 at 8:27 am
@ Nostalgia: DPF was at the cutting edge of political blogging in New Zealand. Now he’s serving up his readers a Readers’ Digest-like diet. One cannot help but wonder about this thought processes in letting Peter Freedman have posting rights on his blog, which used to be the most-read political blog in New Zealand by a wide margin.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 8:41 am
Well I agree with Nostalgia – it was a great story about a kiwi doing well in Aus. And, it was a Guest Post, not DPF’s own work, and what’s wrong with that?
cheers
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 8:47 am
Yes Keeping Stock I do get your point. But I’m sure you’d agree that DPF is entitled to run his blog his way. Somehow I doubt that he is all consumed about being 2nd rather than 1st, particularly for his wisdom in not running foul of the authorities. I think you and I would admit enjoying this blog most of the time Keeping Stock. I only happened along here a few months ago and you are clearly remembering times long before I was a reader here. But I do enjoy some subject diversity. On Saturday night I check out one of the blogs a poster here has spoken about as being run by a kind of dictatorship. I didn’t read that much there because predictable views, on predictable subjects isn’t much of a varied diet.
Something you might have an opinion on would be the question of whether it is the writer of the speaker rather than what they saying or writing is what the majority of people zero in on first or not. For example the ex mp dying of cancer who writes in one of the sunday papers is often referred to on here as not paying his taxes, something most of us already know but I want to read what he has to say not be reminded of others disapproval of him. And if I’m not enjoying it or have no interest, I simply turn the page.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 8:49 am
Meh. Phar Lap never went over fences. Red Rum was the greatest racehorse ever.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 9:08 am
The first sentence put me off from reading the rest.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 9:23 am
Idiot. Clearly knows nothing about the racing industry. Phar Lap was not a bloody NZ racehorse, he was a NZ bred champion Aussie racehorse (much like Makybe Diva was a UK Bred- champion Australian racehorse)
Vote:He is an Aussie Icon, let them have him. In the racing industry we don’t get petty about where a horse was bred.
(By the way is Andrew Mehrtens a South African rugby player? Scott Dixon an Aussie Racing driver??)
“I look upon him as the best racehorse ever” Interesting- You obviously considered Man ‘O War, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Seabird, Tulloch, Kingston Town etc etc
Oh you’ve never heard of them? Then I suggest you don’t write articles about subject matter you clearly know nothing about…
April 17th, 2012 at 9:24 am
It’s worse than the comics, but not as bad as the crosswords.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 9:32 am
adze (1,236) Says:
April 17th, 2012 at 9:08 am
The first sentence put me off from reading the rest.
Reading the author’s name put me off reading any of it except the comments.
Priceless!
For this reason and this reason only I hope DPF keeps posting crap from this no-hoper.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 10:23 am
Actually, I am going to differ with others on this…but then I have always believed in calling it as I see it, not running with the herd..
Aside from badly needing an editing (about 900 words holds the readers’ interest to the end Peter, did they never teach you that?) I quite enjoyed that piece…even though I already knew most of it.
And I am no vet, but colic from eating wet grass?? They must have wet grass in Australia…or given that it was in Mexico, perhaps the grass he ate wasnt rye and clover….
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Once again Peter Freedman holds forth to the audience who hangs on his every word… numbering in the zeroes
DPF it’s your blog and you can do what you wish but letting this fucking retard shit his uninteresting opinion all over your pages will only make you a laughing stock
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 12:01 pm
“Phar Lap’s record reads: Starts 50, Wins 36, 2nds 3, 3rds 2.”
Well, no, it doesn’t actually. 37 wins from 51 starts. Rest of it appears to be bullet points lifted from books published on the horse over the years, such as the Graeme Putt/Pat McCord collaboration a couple of years back.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 2:28 pm
Stickler- Not to mention that any racing fan with even a schoolboy knowledge can tell you that Phar Lap’s last race was in Tijuana Mexico- Not the United States as this idiot claims..
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 3:40 pm
I am saddened by those who seem to think idiotic and often obscene name calling amounts to intelligent debate. The smaller the mind, the greater the personal attack.
If you don’t like my stuff don’t read it!
Simple, really.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 3:59 pm
Longknives, when there is a stud book established for rugby players and racing drivers you might have a point. Until then, you don’t.
I won’t lower myself to your level by calling you an idiot simply because we disagree. Nor will I belittle you just to make myself feel superior. Why you have to lower yourself in that manner I have no idea.
I have, by the way, heard of all the horses you mentioned, and many, many others. I have been a racing fan for nearly 50 years. Through a mutual friend I was lucky enough to be adopted for a day by the Sunline team when she won the Doncaster at Randwick in Easter, 2002. It was a memory I will hold for the rest of my life.
David Garrett, thanks. You’re right about the length, I got carried away. But it is that sort of story.
For those who doubt my contention that Phar Lap was the best ever, I offer just this example. In one race over 2400m, PL not only ran the full distance in track record time, but broke the track record time for every other distance leading up to the 2400. Name me another horse capable of that.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 4:59 pm
Freedman, longknives is not calling you an idiot because you disagree, it’s because you got a basic fact wrong that everyone knows. If you really “disagree” that the Agua Caliente race was in Mexico and was in fact in New Mexico, please present your reasoning, otherwise don’t pretend you’re being insulted for “disagreeing”.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 7:16 pm
Longknives was being abusive. I got a couple of facts wrong. That doesn’t make me an idiot, simply human.
This blog seems loaded with people who cannot argue or debate without becoming offensive, frequently obscene and often personal. They do themselves no credit.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 7:34 pm
Punter Pete
….”If you don’t like my stuff don’t read it!”……
But it’s therapeutic. While I know that the quality of your wafflings would only be challenged by untreated sewage the comments they inspire allow me to face the morning in good humour. Just the other day my young heading dog had good cause to thank you for your inanities. She got excited, the sheep missed the gate & she came back to me tail down & expecting a telling off at best.
I didn’t even explain to her the error of her ways. Jess may be your first true acolyte.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 7:44 pm
“If you don’t like my stuff don’t read it!”
I didn’t. But I guessed the comments would be amusing.
What did you say?
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 8:25 pm
Many, many years ago I listened to my father, who had been apprenticed to Alec McCauley, a Christchurch horse trainer. McCauley was tasked with taking that champion New Zealand galloper, Nightmarch, to Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup. Dad was the “boy” who had to look after Nightmarch. Dad tells the story how his boss had listened to a bloke who trained a three year old (Phar Lap) and that Phar Lap would give Nightmarch a beating and then become the best horse in Australia. Apparently McAuley turned away and said the young bloke was crazy! Well, that was 1929 and Nightmarch won. The following year Nightmarch went back and got well and truly licked. By then Phar Lap was in his prime.
Dad reckoned that Phar Lap could give Nightmarch a stone (6 kg) and a beating; that’s how good Phar Lap was, because Nightmarch was one of the best horses ever trained at Riccarton.
I use the pseudonym Tauhei Notts, but old time knowledgable horsemen will know my surname, from the gospel truth story related above.
Vote:April 17th, 2012 at 8:57 pm
John Costello’s book spells his name McCauley.
Vote:The 1926-27 Turf Register spells it McAuley.
April 17th, 2012 at 9:06 pm
Great info Notts, good Kiwi style hands up stuff.
Vote:Cheeky bugger that other trainer.
April 17th, 2012 at 10:46 pm
“Longknives was being abusive…”
No I wasn’t- I was calling you an idiot because you wrote a poorly researched, factually incorrect piece of rubbish.
Is calling you an idiot any worse than the names you frequently call Australians in your posts? What about the names you called the Police Officers who picked up your wife for drunk-driving in an early rant??
“This blog seems loaded with people who cannot argue or debate without becoming offensive”
Yet I find something offensive in every one of your ‘Guest Blogs’ Peter! “Thick Aussies” etc etc
Mexico/New Mexico- When I was at Journalism school I was taught to research before I wrote..I’m guessing that didn’t happen in your day?
As for Phar Lap being the ‘Greatest of all time” – comparing champions from different eras is an impossible task…but if you want to rant about sectional times you might want to have a look at the breathtaking Belmont Stakes from June 9 1973..and tell me if anything could have beaten this flying machine…
Vote: