Phar Lap, or ‘Big Red’, was a giant of a horse in terms of his size, his astounding record of major race wins, and as a source of national pride in Australia during the depression years of the 1930s.
His name, Phar Lap was inspired by the Thai name for lightening, but it was Phar Lap’s mysterious death by arsenic poisoning in 1932, and suggestions that the horse was murdered by the mob, which has ensured that fascination with Phar Lap has endured in Australia until this day.
By 1932 Phar Lap had won 37 of his 51 races and was the bookies favourite. But it has been suggested that Phar Lap’s predictable dominance on the field was also proving costly for American gangsters. In April 1932, having won the Agua Caliente race in a track record time (arguably the largest horse racing event in the world at that time), Phar Lap was found dead, poisoned by a single large dose of arsenic.
Such is the continuing fame of Par Lap in Australia, and in racing culture, that his horsehide has been preserved at Melbourne Museum, his skeleton is housed in the museum of New Zealand, and his heart preserved in the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.