His last post
By 1931, Phar Lap had won almost every major Australian race, some twice. Looking farther afield, his owners entered him in North America’s richest race. Despite the arduous journey by ship and the change in climate, he won the 1932 Agua Caliente Handicap against some of the greatest horses in the world. Phar Lap had proved himself on the world stage.
But the giant galloper would never race again. A few weeks after his triumph, on the morning of 5 April 1932, his strapper, Tommy Woodcock, found him ill in his stall. Within hours, Phar Lap was dead, Tommy stroking his mane to the last.
Shocked Australians wept when they heard the news. “My sorrow today,” said one, “is as tho’ I had lost my dearest friend”.
Many suspected that Phar Lap had been the victim of foul play. Recent research has shown that Phar Lap ingested arsenic some time before his death. How that was administered still remains a mystery.
Preserving his memory
Knowing his special place in the heats of Australians and that there would never be another horse quite like him, Phar Lap’s owners decided to have their champion preserved for posterity. One of the world’s leading taxidermy firms, Jonas Brothers of New York, undertook the task.
Jonas Brothers were renowned for the realism of their creations, which featured in some of America’s major museums. From the moment of its completion, their Phar Lap was acclaimed as a masterpiece of taxidermy, one of which “truly reflects the commanding presence of Phar Lap in life”.
Phar Lap’s heart was preserved separately and his skeleton reassembled. Both also became prized museum exhibits, at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra and at Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand, in Wellington.