Phar Lap was a great Australian racehorse. The red chestnut was born on a farm near Timaru, New Zealand, on Oct. 4, 1926. Harry Telford, an Australian trainer, convinced the American businessman David J. Davis to buy Phar Lap as a yearling in 1928. Later that year, Telford began to race him and eventually became a co-owner of the horse. From 1928 to 1932, Phar Lap won 36 out of 50 races in Australia and one in Mexico. He won the Melbourne Cup , the most prestigious horse race in Australia and New Zealand, in 1930. In 1931, Phar Lap won 14 successive races. His victories cheered Australians and fostered national pride at a time when the world was experiencing the Great Depression .
Phar Lap was sent to North America to race in the 1932 Agua Caliente handicap in Tijuana, Mexico. He won the race but died mysteriously 16 days later on a farm outside San Francisco, California. Many people feared he may have been poisoned. His heart was brought back to Australia for testing. Although the mystery of his death was never solved, doctors found that Phar Lap had a very large heart, a trait shared by many successful racehorses. Phar Lap’s heart is at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. His skeleton is at the Museum of New Zealand: Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, and his stuffed and mounted hide is at the Melbourne Museum, in Australia.
