Phar Lap was another of the bright stars in my grandfather’s pantheon of “thoroughbred immortals.” Even in the small town in rural Quebec, Canada, where my grandparents lived, horsemen knew about the mighty Phar Lap whose exploits they watched on newsreels in the town’s movie house. “He must have been just a gorgeous beast,” Grandpa would say in a hushed, reverent tone. “But the Depression was no time to be a horse, ” he added, “Nope. It was a dirty time and they did brilliant to keep Phar Lap out of harm’s way for as long as they did.” Grandpa’s pantheon was tiny. But here was an exceptional individual who led the life of a working-class hero. The big red gelding who generally cantered home, winning 37 of his 51 starts over a span of three years, was also as gentle as the toddlers who rode, bridleless, on his broad back.
And of all the narratives that punctuated an incredible life, the story of getting Phar Lap to the 1930 Melbourne Cup has to be the most dramatic.
Phar Lap might well have died before he ever captured the 1930 Melbourne Cup, had it not been for the quick-wittednessa of a team that included trainer Harry Telford and the big red horse’s strapper, or groom, Tom Woodcock.
The Great Depression hit Australia in 1929, a year before the stock market crashed in the USA. Its effects on Australian society were devastating: in 1929, unemployment was already at 10% and at its peak, in 1932, it was at almost 32%. What jobs there were for the working and middle classes were of short duration, especially in cities like Melbourne. And as is often the case when whole nations are ravaged, the suffering was cloaked by an ominous silence. As one survivor recounted:
” People were forced into all sorts of tricks and expediencies to survive, all sorts of shabby and humiliating compromises. In thousands and thousands of homes fathers deserted the family and went on the track (to become itinerant workers), or perhaps took to drink. Grown sons sat in the kitchen day after day, playing cards, studying the horses [betting on horse racing] and trying to scrounge enough for a threepenny bet, or engaged in petty crime, mothers cohabited with male boarders who were in work and who might support the family, daughters attempted some amateur prostitution and children were in trouble with the police.”
(Lowenstein, Wendy. Weevils in the Flour: an oral record of the 1930s depression in Australia , 20th anniversary edition, Scribe, Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia, p.2, 1998.)
This was Phar Lap’s world, where shadows of uncertainty and the desperation of the disenfranchised were the soundtrack of daily life. One escape from despair was horse racing, where men with little chance of finding a job would drop whatever they could find into betting, making that part of the industry a ripe landscape for the unscrupulous. And a horse who seemed to always win was going to evoke both public elation and private rage.
An ugly, scrawny yearling from New Zealand who arrived at the Telford Stable with seemingly little promise had blossomed into a handsome and powerful “Champion of the People” by 1930. Phar Lap’s sire, Night Raid (1918) carried the blood of the great British stallions Bend Or (1877) and Spearmint (1903); his dam, Entreaty (1920) was a New Zealand-bred who descended from the mighty St. Simon (1881) and Isonomy (1875). Night Raid was bred in the UK and sold off first to J. McGuigan for 120 BPS, then to Australian P. Keith, followed by Sydney horseman A. P. Wade, before ending up in the stable of A. P. Roberts, a New Zealand owner-breeder. Lacklustre as he was asa a racehorse, Night Raid proved a very successful sire.
Poor Harry Telford! His despair at seeing the Night Raid colt was without end, for he was the one who had persuaded the millionaire, David J. Davis, to buy him. When Davis saw the colt, he blew up; when he had calmed down enough to think clearly, Davis decided to lease Phar Lap to Telford for three years. Telford would pay for the colt’s maintenance as well as entry fees and Davis would get one third of any earnings the Night Raid colt might amass. Before he turned two, Phar Lap was gelded, the thinking at the time being that as a huge, backward juvenile, the procedure would enhance his development. He was given the name PHAR LAP, derived from a Thai dialect (far lap), meaning “lightening” or “bolt of lightening” or “light from the sky.” Telford dropped the “f” in favour of the “ph” to meet registration requirements.
Harry Telford was a caring trainer but a tough one and he believed that horses benefitted from long, hard works. He set about preparing the lanky Phar Lap using this method, one that prevailed throughout the gelding’s career. Into the youngster’s life came Tommy Woodcock, who cared for “Bobby,” as Phar Lap was called, as well as several other thoroughbreds in the Telford stable. However, Phar Lap became so enamoured of his young strapper that Tommy was soon assigned to the colt full-time.
Phar Lap was Tommy’s horse in every sense of the word. Central as Tommy was to his world, Bobby developed the habit of chewing up Woodcock’s shirts and jackets. To get around this, his young groom taught him a number of games that always ended with a lump of sugar. And Phar Lap’s sweet tooth turned out to be as enormous as his size and as constant as his performance on the turf. Without Tommy’s love, loyalty and friendship it is impossible to say that Phar Lap would have developed into the champion he became, since horses who aren’t happy within themselves seldom realize their potential.
Phar Lap’s two year-old season was unremarkable, except for the laughter that accompanied the big, gawky gelding when he appeared on a race track. Like most babies, Bobby at first had no idea what he was supposed to do. Add to that the very real difficulty of co-ordinating those long, long legs and one can almost imagine him running awkwardly along well behind the pack. He did, however, conclude his first season by breaking his maiden with a win in the 6f Rosehill Maiden Juvenile Handicap in April 1929.
But the youngster would actually race fifteen times in 1929, his first year on the track, because thoroughbreds in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate their birthdays on August 1, and not in January. So a fairer analysis of Bobby’s 1929 performances would show that from September 14, 1929, the now three year-old went on an absolute tear, chalking up a record of 9-4-1-1 from August to November. The wins came in the AJC Derby and the two-mile AJC Craven’s Plate (in October), as well as the prestigious Victoria Derby in November, where he was piloted for the second time by the legendary James Pike.
Under Pike’s guidance, Phar Lap had become the favourite to take the 1929 Derby. Unfortunately, “Gentle Jim” (as Pike was known) was not available and Bobby Lewis was given the mount. As it turned out, Big Bobby and Jockey Bobby fought with each other through the first quarter of the Cup, with Lewis trying to wrestle Phar Lap back, to rate off the pace. It was too much for the youngster and Nightmarch came home first with Phar Lap settling for third — an extraordinary performance considering how he had worn himself out. As 1929 closed, Phar Lap had started fifteen times with a maximum rest of 26 days between races, discounting a three-month summer lay-off. He had run at distances from 6 f to 2 miles and carried imposts from 91-122 lbs. (AJC Victoria Derby win) — an unheard of amount of weight by today’s standards.
No surprise, then, that when Phar Lap started his 3-4 year-old season in 1930 he had quite the fan following — and the statuesque red gelding did not disappoint. It was to be the year of Bobby and Gentle Jim, for in all but 5 of his 21 starts, Jim Pike was in the irons. It was a year none would forget: racing at distances from 9f to 2 1/4 miles, the big horse won 19 and finished second and third respectively in the other two. Bobby reeled off nine consecutive wins between March and May, and another ten from September 13 – November 8. The maximum time-off between races that year was 14 days; the minimum, 9. Carrying weight of between 109 and 138 lbs., Phar Lap came home running easily. After his death, jockey Pike would say that he’d never even come close to finding the bottom of an animal with whom he, like Tommy Woodcock, shared a spiritual bond.
As Phar Lap’s second season progressed through a win in the Cox Plate — his sixth in a row at that point in the season — one thing was becoming eminently clear: the betting houses stood to lose a fortune if the “Red Terror’s” winning streak continued.
In the early doubles betting for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, the Phar Lap-Phar Lap double had been heavily backed, as was the Nightmarch-Phar Lap and the Amounis-Phar Lap double. Telford and Davis had heavily backed the Amounis-Phar Lap ticket, hoping to make a very tidy sum for themselves. Telford had always been secretive about his plans for Phar Lap. Apparently not satisfied with their horse’s substantial earnings to date, Telford, Davis (and perhaps others) used this same tactic to ferment conditions that would make betting even more favourable for themselves.
As the Caulfield Cup drew near and the war of nerves heightened, several owners, including the shady A. Louisson who owned Nightmarch, withdrew their horses from the race. Five days before the Caulfield Cup, Telford withdrew Phar Lap, provoking rage among those who had determined not to run their horses.
On Caulfield Cup day, Amounis obliged by winning and became Australia’s biggest stakes winner ever at 48,197 AUS pounds — an absolute fortune in 1930.
But Telford, Davis and others who had backed the Amounis-Phar Lap double were equally thrilled, since it seemed impossible that Phar Lap would lose.
For the bookies — from those legitimate betting enterprises to the ones closely associated with Australia’s underworld, referred to as “illegal starting-price operators” — the prospect of Phar Lap’s winning the Melbourne Cup spelled disaster. It was estimated that with doubles and straight betting combined, bookmakers would be paying out something in the region of 200,000 AUS pounds should Phar Lap win. The legitimate bookmakers would, albeit begrudgingly, meet their obligations. But the betting underworld was populated with gangsters, gunmen, drug lords and the like — a rough sort, unlikely to pay out such a vast sum.
And this doesn’t even include all the individuals who had lost money betting on a Phar Lap- Phar Lap and/or Nightmarch/Phar Lap double, or disgruntled owners like Louisson, who had pulled perfectly good horses from the Caulfield Cup and headed home penniless.
At the same time, Phar Lap had woven his way into the hearts of a nation. Everything he did was front page news, from rolling around in the sand to carrying toddlers on his back to going for works with the grey pony who was his constant stable companion. It seemed impossible that anyone would try to take down a horse who had become a national figure.
About a week before the running of the 1930 Melbourne Cup, Tommy Woodcock looked up from attending to Phar Lap to see a friend of trainer Telford and a man “who stood high in my estimation…A person who had entry to Telford’s stables at any time” entering the barn. After a bit of smalltalk, this mystery man (Woodcock never identified him by name) tactfully suggested that, should Phar Lap win the Cup, “… the bookmakers would be calling for the bridle to make the weight.” Tommy laughed off the observation, even though he knew it was a reference to the plight of bookmakers should the big horse win.
Thinking that Woodcock would be easy to convince, the visitor tried again, “I’ll wager you could get a fortune from some of those who are deep in if you doped Phar Lap before the race.” But Tommy wasn’t paying much attention — he was too busy “dressing” Bobby.
The Melbourne Cup was (and remains) THE race on the Australian calendar and on Cup Day the entire country shuts down. The pressure on anyone who has a Cup horse is already enormous. Added to the pressure assailing Tommy was that he was receiving threatening letters on a daily basis about what might happen to his beloved Bobby if the horse ran. Whether or not the mystery man was behind these threats has never been made clear, but they included spraying Phar Lap with acid and sticking him with needles. Others, of a similar bent, were seen by the young lad as patently ridiculous. But one letter made his blood turn to ice: this one threatened that Phar Lap would be “shot down like a dingo.” It went on to say that “Phar Lap was used by gamblers unfairly to trick bookmakers and that if {Phar Lap’s} life was valued his name should be struck out of the Cup.”
The mystery man showed up again at Joe Cripps’ stables at Caulfield where Phar Lap was stabled. This time, “…He told me that the Ring would never get over the knock it would receive {if Phar Lap won} at the same time saying he knew of men who would give a heap of money to be relieved of their responsibilities. ‘Tommy, you could set yourself up for life if you listened to them,’ he added.”
The third visit was more straight forward. ” ‘ Tommy, the best I can do for you is four thousand (AUS),’ he said. I looked at him in astonishment. He must have thought that I was disappointed in the offer as he went on to tell me that there were only a couple of bookmakers in it, and four thousand pounds was a lot of money.”
To a young strapper during the Depression era, if not in general, it was indeed a fortune. Grooms and stable folk didn’t earn anything near to what owners, trainers and jockeys made — even when they were rubbing a champion. But Tom Woodcock was an honest youth and he loved Phar Lap. His response to the bribe was swift: he ordered the man off the premises and advised him to not return on threat of bodily harm. Then he called Harry Telford.
First, Tommy told the trainer about the bribe. There was a long silence. Telford replied, “… Phar Lap {will} be lucky if he {sees} the post in the Cup, as more than one person {is} anxious to see him out of the way.” Telford went on to say that he,too, had been offered a bribe: ten thousand (AUS) pounds; Woodcock later heard, from reliable sources, that Jim Pike had also been bribed. But, although all three regularly bet (in fact, Jim Pike ended his years in poverty because of his gambling addiction) none accepted, leading Woodcock to conclude “…Whatever those who tried to engineer the defeat of Phar Lap thought of Telford, Pike or me for refusing to be a party to their scheme, they must at least have realized we were honest men.”
Woodcock then told the trainer about the threat to shoot the horse and a 24-hour guard was put on Phar Lap. As Tommy observed, ” …The only way they could maim him was to shoot him, so close was the guard on him, and it would have to be a shot at long range as little opportunity was afforded anyone of getting close to him.” Tommy moved his bed from near Bobby’s stall right into it. As his fears mounted, Woodcock confessed to be suffering from “imaginitis,” causing him to lie awake most of the night next to the giant gelding and to look as though he had eyes in the back of his head whenever they left the Cripps’ stable for Caulfield race track.
Like many who have trained famous thoroughbreds, Telford’s team habituated the early morning hours, when it was still dark, to work Phar Lap. So it was that on a Saturday that was also the morning of the Derby and the opening day of Melbourne’s Racing Carnival, Tommy on his pony and a hooded Bobby left the stable for Caulfield race track, where they would meet up with Bobby Parker, who had escorted the Cripps’ horses to the track and would, in turn, work Phar Lap.
Another lad who worked for Cripps, as well as a newspaper reporter, noted the car near the track. The reporter noticed that the numbers on its licence plate were scrawled crudely in what looked like chalk. (Cars were still rare in Australia at this time and it was even rarer to find one anywhere near a race track that early in the morning.) Tommy didn’t take note of it because he had taken a different route to the track, since Phar Lap liked to look at everything around him and always appreciated an improvisation to his usual routine.
After Phar Lap’s breeze, the little band started out for home. It was about 5:20 a.m.
Usually the trio wound their way back at a leisurely pace along Roseberry Grove, but for some (fortuitous) reason, Tommy decided to take an alternate route along Manchester Grove instead. Which meant that they came up behind the car that Parker and the journalist had spotted earlier, instead of in front of it. Tommy saw its whitewashed, chalky plates immediately. The hairs on his head bristled. But he was almost alongside it before he knew something was not right and, as he passed, the occupants buried their heads in their newspapers. (He would subsequently recount that he saw a shotgun barrel peak out of the rear window as they passed by.)
Phar Lap and his pony moved alongside and passed the car, but before they got far enough away Tommy heard its engine start up. Digging his heels into the pony, he hustled around a corner and pushed Phar Lap up against a fence, planting the pony and himself between Bobby and the car. But the Studebaker came careening after them, its horn blaring, making straight for Phar Lap. The gelding became agitated and reared up, turning himself around 360 degrees in the process.
As Tommy tells it, “Lucky for him {Phar Lap} he did so, as the back seat passenger poked out a double-barreled shotgun and fired point blank. The pellets were embedded in the picket fence where Phar Lap had been standing…It was all over in a second. They didn’t stop to fire a second shot. The shooting took place at 5:40 a.m. and with the report of the gun and the honking of the horn it wasn’t long before heads were appearing out of gates and windows.” Woodcock failed to mention that he himself was thrown to the ground by the frightened pony, who was subsequently grabbed by a milkman.
Phar Lap had been entered in the Melbourne Stakes as a kind of prep race on November 1, three days before the Cup, and — incredibly — his team decided to go on with it. Two policemen were stationed just feet away from the horse’s stall and remained with him up until the evening of November 1, when a victorious Phar Lap returned to the Cripps’ barn.
Having read the newspaper reports of the shooting, a Mr. H.G. Raymond, of the Victoria Racing Club, stepped forward to offer his property at St. Albans near Geelong as a hiding place for Phar Lap until Cup Day. The offer was jumped at by Telford. At about the same time, jockey Jim Pike went into hiding as well, since if the gunmen couldn’t get to the horse, he judged that he might well be their next victim.
Later that same night, horse, pony and Woodcock were shipped off the Cripps’ premises in the middle of the night. Bags were laid out on the ground to muffle the sound of horse and pony being loaded into the trailer. And before the van moved away, trainer Telford (who, with Cripps, was the only one other than Raymond, Woodcock and Stan Boyden, Telford’s trusted driver, who knew of the plan) handed a gun to both Tommy and Stan.
Fortunately, nothing happened that required either of them to use their weapons. All arrived safely at St. Albans, Bobby being a model passenger, since he was always happy if his beloved Tommy was close by.For the two days leading up to the Cup, Woodcock slept right beside Phar Lap, while another horse, Old Ming, was selected to pose as the champion and duly stabled at Cripps’ Stable. Telford later confided that Old Ming was rather shocked by all the fuss and bother that greeted him, dressed in Phar Lap’s tack of rug and hood, when he went to Caulfield to train.
The morning of the Melbourne Cup, Phar Lap had a short work with some of the St. Albans’ horses before being tacked up and loaded onto the horse trailer at 11 a.m. Arriving at the Flemington track in good time, the trailer entered via the member’s drive. At race time, Phar Lap was escorted to the track by armed guards.
A crowd of 72,000 had turned out to see him and Tommy had groomed Phar Lap’s red coat to a burnished, gleaming copper. As Jim Pike sent him down to the start at a canter, a wave of cheers of tsunami proportion accompanied the gelding. It was a small field — not usually the case — likely as much due to the Depression as to Phar Lap’s reputation. But no-one minded. All were there to see the greatest thoroughbred that Australia had ever known win its most prestigious Cup.
Gentle Jim never touched him and carrying the staggering impost of 138 lbs. as though it was nothing, Phar Lap turned into the home stretch and cruised up to the wire, his ears pricked. Hearts that had been so tested by the Depression were swept up in a joyous abandon that shook the grandstand.
But no heart sailed higher than Tommy Woodcock’s. Later that night, feeding Bobby sugar while cradling his head, Tommy told him that he was “the best horse in the whole world.”
Which, of course, he was.
The winnings were 9, 229 pounds (AUS), together with the Gold Cup, worth another 200. Tom Woodcock received ten pounds from Phar Lap’s owners …. as a bonus for taking such good care of Bobby.
The headlines and celebration of the day follow, together with some remarkable footage of Phar Lap.
BONUS FEATURE: an absolutely stunning documentary entitled “The Mighty Conquerer” made about PHAR LAP just before his departure for New Zealand and then the USA. Nothing we have ever seen comes closer to its message of love for the mighty Phar Lap.
PRIMARY SOURCES
Carter, I. R. PHAR LAP: the Story Of The Big Horse. Melbourne, Australia:1964.
Woodcock, T. PHAR LAP MEMORIES serialized in THE MERCURY, Hobart, Tasmania: 1936.
THE ARGUS, Melbourne, Australia 1929-1930.
THE SYDNEY HERALD, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 1929-1930.
Great blog ! Thanks so much for sharing your research and insight! Elizabeth Knizley
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Elizabeth: Thank you so much for taking the time to write. Hearing from VAULT readers means so much to me. I’m really glad you liked the Phar Lap story! Abigail
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Thanks Abigail, I learned quite a bit more about this fabulous horse. I had rented the DVD years ago and the memory of Tommy racing him up and down the sand dunes has always stuck in my head. How awful for the team to go thru what they did just to keep the horse alive……terrible times they must have been. Makes one wonder what really happened to him in the end, there is much speculation on that score. Always love your pieces. hugs Sue
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Sue: I’m so glad you enjoyed it and learned more about Australia’s “Big Red.” (Yup, the Australians & New Zealanders actually called him that!) It was a really brave and honest Tommy Woodcock who kept him alive — and it just blows me away that Tommy refused such a huge bribe even though he would have had every reason to take it. As for “what really happened” there was a recent interview with a horseman called James Mason, in whom Tommy confided that he believed he had an unwittingly killed his Bobby. They were coming back to California when Tommy spotted a field of alfalfa. Phar Lap hadn’t had greens for over 2 weeks. So they stopped the trailer and let him graze. Then a few nights later, Tommy was awoken by Bobby & saw that he was “tied up” (colic?) and before they could get a vet to come he was gone. Tommy said he invented the poisoning story because he feared he’d be fired by owner Davis. If it’s true (and it well might be) it’s hard to blame Tommy, in my opinion. HUGS! Abigail
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What a lovely read! Quite sad actually, thanks!
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It is a sad story, Eveline, in terms of what I learned about threats to Phar Lap’s life 2 years before he died and how this happened. Thank goodness he had Tommy. Thank you so much for taking the time to write, Abigail
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Abigail, glad to hear he finally owned up, they’ve been blaming us Yanks for years, even heard they didn’t want to send any horses up here for fear we’d poison them. Sounds like there were enough who wanted him dead down under. So sad when these great ones go…..especially when it’s not natural causes. hugs sue
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Sue: Of course, the dead can’t defend themselves so I’d be cautious about being 100% convinced that Tommy was the one responsible. If he was, it must have been shattering for him. You are right: racing in the “dirty Thirties” whether in Australia or Canada was a really crooked business, probably making stories that Phar Lap was poisoned to stop him from winning even more money in the USA plausible. (Davis, the owner, had agreements with tracks and different venues right across the USA for Phar Lap to appear before he died that were worth a fortune.) But Australian horses continued to come to the USA in the same time period after Phar Lap’s death. Tea Trader is one I can think of but I know there were many others — chiefly for the cash, since the weights horses carried over here were so much less than in Australia & New Zealand.
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Absolutely super article. The supporting material is awesome – and so helps to bring poor Phar Lap to life. And such an extraordinary sense of the era…of course so reminiscent of Seabiscuit being taken to heart as a winner by the millions who were struggling. Anyone who comes here A MUST SEE IS FINAL VIDEO IN ARTICLE. A gem.
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Liz: As I mentioned (below) some comments that are posted here never show up in my Admin. Comments section — no clue why. So forgive my tardy appreciation of your support for my work. I appreciate it so much. Hugs, Abigail
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Abigail, what a captivating story! He was such an incredible athlete, and the connection between horse and groom is often an aspect that goes untold. LOVED reading this article!
Hugs!
Bunny
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Bunny: You know my “bias” is very much towards the real people behind the scenes who love and care for these great horses. So glad that you enjoyed it. Did you get my Halloween card? (Sent to your email) Abigail
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It is so kind of you to think of me! I never did receive your Halloween card. Did you get my card in the mail?
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Bunny: It was an emailed card. So sorry you didn’t receive it! I loved the Halloween card you sent me. It’s a keeper!!!! Love & hugs, Abigail
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Beautiful, Abigail, just beautiful!!! Thank you so much for sharing your research and writing talents with us to bring us more on the story of Phar Lap. I’ll have to let it settle a little bit and then come back to read it again…and again. The videos are an absolute bonus! Bravo!!
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Thank you so much, Celeste. I will never figure out why some of these comments don’t show up in my Admin. Comments section! So forgive the tardy reply. What would I do without you? From the very beginning you’ve been there to cheer me on. And I’m so pleased that you loved the videos. The BONUS FEATURE is a real gem — gives a true sense of the period and is so charming in its naiveté. He was a great, great thoroughbred and it’s wonderful to share him with readers like you. Hugs, Abigail
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Incredible story – so well-told Abigail. An amazing horse, but what seems almost more important is the dedication and integrity of those who cared for him. I don’t know the end of the story, but I can guess from Sue’s comments and your response. Thank you for another trip back into the history of this sport!
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Sandy: Thanks so much for writing! I’m very pleased that you enjoyed it. It was so interesting reading through the newspapers of the day and learning about how racing inherited all the ills of an age where there was so much suffering — and where horses like Phar Lap, Nightmarch and Amounis brought people genuine joy.
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My father worked for Alec McAuley, trainer of Mr A. Louisson’s Nightmarch.
I think it is unfair of you to refer to Louisson as the shady Mr Louisson.
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Tauhei: Sorry to give offence. The reference comes from the not-terribly-flattering portrait of him in I.R. Carter’s book, although Carter’s viewpoint is borne out by other researchers too. Of course, Nightmarch was a wonderful horse and Alec McAuley was likely a fine gentleman. But realize that at this time (in North America as well as Australia) racing was a pretty “shady” business in general. If you’re interested, I would recommend Dorothy Ours’ book on Man O’ War where she gives some great details about the sport as it was in the USA.
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A wonderful story Abigail and of course so beautifully written as usual. My Grandfather was lover of horse racing and an avid fan of Pharlap. He was fond of telling people that he was there at Rosehill on that day in 1929 when Pharlap won his first race. His Father had taken him, he was 10 years old and he never forgot it. Unfortunately he passed away last year at the age of 94 and I miss his stories. He always knew he had a transfixed audience when he started to tell his racing stories. I think it’s something he passed to me in his genes as I too am never far from a race horse or a track. Your stories are wonderful and I never tire of reading them.
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Lorrie: What a beautiful and moving story of your grandfather. It seems to me that you & he had a similar “genetic bond” to me and my Grandpa. I, too, was transfixed when he shared his memories of the “Great Ones” as he called them. It was years before I realized that it was radio & newsreels in “movie houses” as well as newspapers that had put him in touch with these horses as though he knew them personally, because he never saw any of them in the flesh. And thank you so much for the compliment about my work. It means more than I can say to receive this kind of encouragement. Thank you! Abigail
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What a great story, I love your posts Abigail!
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Cocoandisa: Thank you so much! He’s a great champion and while intimidating to try to write something about an icon, I really found the research quite fascinating — and especially coming across the Bonus Feature film, which I just love. Abigail
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Another great article about a super star athlete and his people. Thank you Abigail!!
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Stephanie: Thank you so much. I’m so pleased that you liked it! Phar Lap is a great favorite of mine and it’s lovely to share that passion with you. How’s your big boy doing? Abigail
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OK. So this is from an Aussie. firstly, the belief of the “Yanks” killing Phar Lap has long passed. Phar Lap was a amazing horse and proved that when he took on the Agua Caliente race in 1932 and won. Tommy DID NOT accidently/deliberately kill Phar Lap , he LOVED that horse and anybody with two eyes could see that. The truth may never be known, but don’t tarnish the name of someone who can’t speak for themselves. I along with my mother and a friend saved the ashes of Tommy from being discarded last year and we are working on a statue of him to be placed at a racecourse.
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Aussie: All this controversy over who killed Phar Lap, how he died and so forth is exactly the reason I wanted to focus this article on his career and the relationship between Phar Lap and Tommy. So thank you for commenting and reminding us that Phar Lap — and Tommy’s — life was about far more than the last few days of his life. I found a clip from someone called James Mason on YouTube who said that Tommy had confessed to inadvertedly feeding Phar Lap alfalfa which had given him a severe colic, killing him. Have you ever seen that interview? But when I saw it, like you, I decided that since Tommy couldn’t speak for himself it was pretty much null & void as evidence. In the USA we’ve lost some greats to terrible accidents, among them the great filly Ruffian. When I wrote about her, I tried to put an emphasis on her incredible ability and the love she inspired that has brought her immortality despite her short life. About Tommy’s ashes: why would they be in danger of being discarded? Surely, like his great horse, Tommy Woodcock is a national treasure too? Abigail
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Yes I have seen the youtube video and it’s all hearsay as there is no proof of this James Mason ever coming into contact with Tommy. Tommy was a very private person who rarely ever spoke to anyone about Phar Lap as he loved him and his death affected him right up until his own. Even his own apprentice jockeys never heard him speak about him. I know this as I did research for a book on him and I have spoken with his family, the apprentice jockeys and majority of those still alive who were friends with him.
Abigail, here is the link to the artice done after we saved the ashes.http://belesprit09.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/the-tommy-woodcocks-ashes-to-remain-in-perpetuity-in-his-original-resting-place/#more-21860
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Aussie, you are to be commended for saving Tommy’s ashes. What an absolute disgrace that this would happen to such a wonderful and beloved individual. The “Pharlap” movie was so popular both in Aus and all over the world you would think that the people who made money off Tommy could have done this. There is an amount of conversation over here about racing being all about the money and of course it is but those who have made the money off horses like Pharlap and people like Tommy really should be putting more back into the sport.
Abigail’s writing is always on the side of those who give their all to these champions and she celebrates the greatness of these athletes. Her research is faultless to my eyes. She gets to the heart of the horse’s story and the people who care for them.
I wish you the greatest success to have a statue erected to Tommy. If Black Caviar deserves one then Tommy is owed one.
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Thank you Lorrie. Over time, people forget the people behind the great horses and who were never in it for the money (Tommy barely made a cent and all his money went on buying Phar Lap nice things such as rugs) Even in his elder years his horses came before anything else.
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I believe the VRC had everything to do with Pharlap’s death most of the committee hated him with a vengeance as he was a battlers horse and Davis had been made to look a fool! He was on the VRC’s side Pharlap was made to race by the VRC in the previous Melbourne cup where he ran eighth.Tommy Woodcock and Harry Telford tried to scratch him but were informed by the VRC if they did they would not get another run ever! The list goes on and on. All the tracks he raced on except Flemington.( Sandown soon to go) are now all housing developments. His stables mysteriously burnt down in Braeside etc. etc. couldn’t believe it at first when I started doing some research. The Truth newspaper stated app.3months before he died.”Don’t be surprised if you hear bad news coming across the cables that the Red Terror is dead. He has gone to a land where a virus is raging”3 months before he died! It was a plan for sure. Nothing much has changed they don’t even like horses! there should be a public enquiry into it all to expose them.
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Nancy Mcfarlane Hi Abigail I wasnt sure how this all worked until I clicked onto about the Author I was so happy to be able to get my thoughts across It has concerned me greatly for years of the agendas the VRC have had.My beautiful horse Solarboy’s son Grandson of Northern Dancer has suffered the wrath of their heartlessness as many horses have they are the lowest of the low it wasn’t the yanks that killed Pharlap it was them!as I said they hated Pharlap and a man called John Wren who helped to finance Harry Telford who he beleived in without a doubt and as it turned out his hunch wasn’t wrong as I said They hated him as much they hated Pharlap but he had the money to fight them and “they” tried every dirty trick known to man backed by the government to stop him. This is all documented.There is so much more I can write about but this will do for the time being I really feel the Americans should know the real truth
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Hi Abigail I am not sure if my last comment was accepted mabye it was too scathing of the Victorian Race Club I see you printed my last comment thanks,meanwhileI have been reading your home page which is just beautiful! especially seeing photographs of Northern Dancer and all the others wow you have really started something Abigail.I am so glad I have found you,mabye I have clicked on the wrong spot, am not what you would call a whiz at computers, far from it I will see if this one goes through. Nancy
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Nancy: Lovely to hear from you and your thoughts on the VCR, as well as your experiences and your own research. You might want to check back because there are also articles on Australian racing (a history) and one on a real fave of mine, who also got messed around with terribly, Bernborough, as well as another on Secretariat’s son Kingston Rule & his dam, Rose of Kingston. I try to keep the content here as international as I can!!! Cheers, Abigail
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Yes the VRC treatment of Pharlap, Bernborough and others was atrocious. But we have to take into account that was 80 years ago and in those days it was only the people with money who could afford to own and race horses and join other weathy people in the Victorian Racing Club. Times have changed tremendously since then. Black Caviar was treated like the Queen she was by every racing club in Australia, if not the world.
The VRC puts on arguably the best racing carnival in the world with their Melbourne Cup Carnival. Everyone should attend at least one Melbourne Cup in their lifetime, You’ll never forget it.
Australia in the 1930’s was still finding itself, there were more “haves” than “have nots” and they took their cue from the snobbish behaviour of their peers in the “mother” country. Now, in the 21st century, Australia is a nation of many races blended so well together that they don’t have to mimic anyone else.
Pharlap was by far the greatest horse to ever come out of Australian/New Zealand racing, just as IMHO Man O’ War was the greatest produced in North America. My wish would be to see both these champions race.
I think it’s time to let these champions rest in peace. We will never know for sure what killed Pharlap but I’m certain it was not Tommy.
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