Phar Lap

[Calzone Lord]

This horse probably has the best case for Horse of the World.

Prior to 1935 -- pari-mutual wagering was outlawed in California. The Mexico track Caliente was the Santa Anita of its day and Agua Caliente Handicap was the Big Cap of its day.

In Phar Lap's final 35 races -- he had a record of 35-32-2-0 -- the only time he missed the board was when he failed to carry a record 150lbs in the 2 mile Melbourne Cup.



Interestingly -- he raced with no whip. The symbol W stands for whip. The symbol stands for spurs. You could use both whip and spurs -- but riders rarely did. Nice place price by the way!

He was the 129lbs highweight in his dirt debut. Preakness Stakes winner Dr. Freeland was next at 120lbs. American Derby winner Reveille Boy was in at 118lbs. Spanish Play (4th in the Kentucky Derby at 3 and New Orleans Handicap winner) was in at 117lbs.

How fast did Phar Lap run?:

Race 4: 9 Furlongs in 1:54.20 ($600 claimer, 11 horse field, won by 1.5 lengths, winner carried 110lbs) raw figure of 67

Race 6: 8.5 furlongs in 1:47.60 ($800 claimer, 9 horse field, won by 2 lengths, winner carried 114lbs) raw figure of 64

Race 9: 8.5 furlongs in 1:47.00 ($800 claimer, 10 horse field, won by 3 lengths, winner carried 107lbs) raw figure of 69

Race 12: 8.5 furlongs in 1:45.80 ($1,800-to-$2,500 claimer, 8 horse field, won by 3 lengths, winner carried 90lbs) raw figure of 81

Race 13: Phar Lap wins by 2 lengths -- 10 furlongs in 2:02.80 under 129lbs. raw figure of 110

Race 14: 10 furlongs in 2:07.20 ($800 claimer, 9 horse field, winner by a length under 106lbs) raw figure of 75

Race 15: 10 furlongs in 2:08.00 ($500 claimer, 10 horse field, winner by 7 lengths under 106lbs) raw figure of 69

[Calzone Lord]

Here is the video replay of the entire race: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bROtR5ivyZw


Here is part of what was written about Phar Lap before the race:

[my miss storm cat]

Everyone ignored me when I asked.

http://www.derbytrail.com/forums/sho...ighlight=World

[Calzone Lord]

I looked up the result charts for the day of his dirt win today -- and watched his dirt win on Youtube.

There is no disputing he ran a great race. Obviously he was an incredible horse on grass.

Salvator wrote: "The Agua Caliente performance proclaimed him all if not more than he had been represented"

Present that day were two future Hall of Famers, both awe-struck -- jockey Eddie Arcaro and astute horseman Charlie Whittingham.

[Calzone Lord]

With his suspicious death and all -- and looking at his form -- I wonder if this horse was heavily doped throughout his racing career.

He seemed too impossibly good to be true...and after a dismal 1-for-10 start to his career no less.



It appears almost comical how much better he was than everything else in his Aussie races. He made a complete mockery of that field under true handicap conditions on dirt and ran very fast despite a stupid ride.

[DEES3]

I was looking at his Wikipedia entry the other day, and it claims that his heart (which is on display at a museum) weighs in at 6 lbs, versus 3ish for the average thoroughbred. It also said that horses were often given arsenic solutions, and testing on his mane showed repeated dosing over his lifetime.

[Calzone Lord]

Yeah -- it's suspicious to me. I'm sure a lot of others weren't clean either though.

When Phar Lap failed in the 1931 Melbourne Cup -- he carried 150lbs versus 96lbs carried by the winner.

That's a 54lbs break in weights at a distance of 2-miles to a fellow older male.

On the Ragozin Sheets and Thoro-Graph sheets -- a 54lbs weight break at the distance of 2-miles is worth more than 35 lengths.

The 3rd place finisher carried 122lbs (4th highest weighted in a race with 14 horses) and broke down just after the wire.

He was basically so invincible that he had to be "handicapped into oblivion" in order to be tested.

[Calzone Lord]

A couple of neat images:

Here is Phar Lap getting off of a boat after a 10,000 mile ride to America prior to the Agua Caliente.




Here are win pictures of Phar Lap's "Flemington Assault" when he easily won four different Group 1 races in a span of 7 days -- including the Melbourne Cup as a major highweight. Three of these four races are still Group 1's to this day.

[Revidere]

He also raced with a bar shoe since Harry Telford "sored" him to lower his value when he purchased a share from Davis after the lease was up.

Also, Johnny Longden rode Bahamas against Phar Lap at Caliente. Just some trivial stuff that probably only matters to me.