The life size bronze statue of famous race horse Phar Lap
with jockey Jim Pike aboard, by Auckland sculptor Joanne
Sullivan-Gessler. Photo by NZPA.
The author of a new book about legendary racehorse Phar
Lap believes he died in agony but was not poisoned.
Australian-born Auckland physicist Graeme Putt also believes
Phar Lap won the richest race in the world with an injured
hoof which caused him to falter as he entered the turn into
the final straight.
He said lateral forces on his split hoof caused him pain and
he slowed in the Agua Caliente Handicap in Mexico in 1932.
He lost the clear lead he established but once he came out of
the turn and into the straight the lateral force came off his
hoof and he "streeted" ahead to win by about two lengths.
Dr Putt's book, Phar Lap the Untold Story, would be
launched formally in Timaru next week when a life-sized
statue of the horse is unveiled at the Timaru racecourse.
The statue by Auckland sculptor Joanne Sullivan-Gessler of
Phar Lap in full stretch showed his enormous stride and
racing style.
Dr Putt said when Phar Lap went to America he was fitted with
the wrong horseshoes which broke one of his hooves.
He said the broken hoof made Phar Lap's win in Mexico even
more remarkable.
Since Phar Lap died in April 1932, theories about what caused
his death have abounded, including deliberate or accidental
arsenic poisoning, and one that he ate grass from a nearby
paddock which had been sprayed with weedkiller.
Dr Putt, however, said he probably died from a bacterial
infection, anterior enteritis, and showed no symptoms to
suggest arsenic poisoning.
"The jury really is still out completely on it."
Had it been anterior enteritis it would have been an
agonising death from an internal bloating.
"It was agonising, no doubt about that."
In his book, Dr Putt also said Phar Lap's trainer, Australian
Harry Telford, learnt most of his horsemanship skills in New
Zealand after moving to this country when he was about a year
old. He returned to Australia when he was in his 30s.
"That is something which is not properly recognised.
"It is a real Anzac story with Australia and New Zealand
oozing into it."
He said about half the book was about Phar Lap's life in New
Zealand until he was sold as a yearling and taken to
Australia.
The rest of the book was divided between his life in
Australia when he became famous and his trip to America for
his final race in Mexico in 1932.
"The Americans love him and they voted him among their top 10
most loved horses, which included Trigger, Roy Rogers' horse,
Silver, the Lone Ranger's, and characters like that as well
as Secretary and Man O' War.
"This is on the strength of one race (the Agua Caliente
Handicap). He won it in such sensational circumstances and it
is indelibly imprinted on American turf law.
"Two minutes on the track. I call it a moment which became an
eternity," he said.
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