The Big Book of Australian Racing Stories
Page 53
The plot revolved around three great horses: Phar Lap, Amounis and Nightmarch.
Nightmarch had defeated Phar Lap in the Melbourne Cup of 1929 but, the following spring, Nightmarch was defeated four times in a row by Phar Lap. Nightmarch’s owner, Mr A. Louisson, had been heard to say that he would take the horse back to New Zealand for the New Zealand Cup if Phar Lap contested the Caulfield Cup.
In a conversation with Telford, Frank McGrath suggested that his great stayer Amounis, the only horse to defeat Phar Lap twice, would win the Caulfield Cup if Nightmarch and Phar Lap didn’t start. He suggested that Telford leave Phar Lap in the Caulfield Cup field until Louisson took his horse home. In that time they could get very lucrative odds about their two horses winning the Caulfield–Melbourne Cups double.
The plan worked perfectly. Seeing that Phar Lap was set to contest the Caulfield Cup, Louisson took Nightmarch home and he duly won the New Zealand Cup. Then Telford scratched Phar Lap, stating that he didn’t want to over-race the horse, and Amounis won the Caulfield Cup. Phar Lap, of course, famously and easily won the second leg and the two trainers sent a battalion of bookies near bankrupt.
Both Davis and Telford have been accused of over-racing their champion and Davis has been criticised for starting Phar Lap, against Telford’s wishes, in the Melbourne Cup of 1931, with the cruel weight of 10 st 10 lb (68 kg), and for taking the horse to America.
Davis, however, seems in retrospect to have been a fair-minded man. He was grateful to Telford for finding the horse and allowed him to remain as part-owner for a modest £4000 when the lease expired. It was also Davis who had Phar Lap’s skin, heart and skeleton returned to Australasia after his tragic death.
It is also worth remembering that Telford had already won a Melbourne Cup with Phar Lap carrying his colours while under lease, while Davis had not had that honour.
Myths develop quickly in racing as in other fields of dreams and the truth is often forgotten when fiction and films are created from fact. Telford has been criticised for leaving young Tommy Woodcock in charge of the valuable champion in the USA, but the fact is that Telford’s daughter had just died and he was organising her funeral. It is also true that a team of four, which included jockey Bill Elliott and vet Bill Nielsen, travelled to the USA with Woodcock and Phar Lap. David Davis was also in the USA managing the campaign. So the horse’s assault on the US was meticulously planned.
It is a mark of Phar Lap’s ability that the VRC changed the weight-for-age rules in 1931 to include allowances and penalties, in an attempt to bring the extraordinary horse ‘back to the field’. They also gave him a massive 22 pounds (10 kg) over weight-forage in the 1931 Cup.
Further testament to Phar Lap’s greatness are the sensation he caused in the USA and the ease of his win in the invitational Agua Caliente Handicap, in Tijuana Mexico, at his first start on dirt after a long sea journey and an 800-mile road trip. He was also recovering from a bad stone bruise to a heel and raced in bar plates for the first time—and broke the track record. That win, his only start outside the relatively minor racing arena of Australia, made him the third-greatest stakes-winning racehorse of all time, in the world.
Phar Lap’s tragic death and the theories surrounding it have been well documented, as well as becoming entrenched in racing folklore. The nation mourned and the autopsy showed a severe gastric inflammation from duodenitis-proximal jejunitis, a condition exacerbated by stress.
Later studies, as recently as 2008, showed the presence of arsenic in large quantities, which has led to all sorts of theories, ranging from Percy Sykes’s statement that all horses at that time had arsenic in their systems, to theories of deliberate poisoning. Phar Lap had evidently been fed foliage cut down after being sprayed with arsenic-based insecticide.
Two things seem certain: the well-documented symptoms the horse suffered are totally consistent with duodenitis-proximal jejunitis, and there was a lot of arsenic in his system. The rest is conjecture.
Phar Lap was such a towering figure that the history of thoroughbred racing in Australia is divided into ‘before’ and ‘after’ Phar Lap. All champions since him have only ever been ‘the best since Phar Lap’. So it’s entirely appropriate that this summary of our early champions and crowd favourites ends with him.
Comparing horses of different eras is silly, but people keep doing it. The exercise was described as ‘folly’ by the US Blood-Horse Magazine, which nevertheless, in 1999, ranked the top 100 horses ever to race in America. The panel placed Phar Lap, on the strength of one start in Mexico, 22nd.
When the findings were published, one of the panel recalled a conversation with Francis Dunne, who had been a placings judge at Agua Caliente and later a senior racing administrator in New York State. Dunne was asked, after Secretariat’s Triple Crown win in 1973, whether he thought Man O’ War or Secretariat was the greatest horse of them all. He replied, ‘Neither: I saw Phar Lap.’
PHAR LAP
ANONYMOUS
How you thrilled the racing public with your matchless strength and grace;
With your peerless staying power and your dazzling burst of pace.
You toyed with your opponents with a confidence so rare,
Flashing past the winning post with lengths and lengths to spare.
No distance ever proved too great, no horse or handicap,
Could stop you winning races like a champion, Phar Lap.
With a minimum of effort you would simply bowl along,
With a stride so devastating and an action smooth and strong.
And you vied with the immortals when, on Flemington’s green track,
You won the Melbourne Cup with nine stone twelve upon your back.
How the hearts of thousands quickened as you cantered back old chap,
With your grand head proudly nodding to the crowd that yelled, ‘Phar Lap.’
Who that saw it could forget it—how you won the Craven Plate?
When a mighty son of Rosedale, whom we’d justly labelled ‘great’,
Clapped the pace on from the start in a middle-distance race,
Just to test you to the limit of endurance, grit and pace.
He was galloping so strongly that the stands began to clap,
For it seemed as though your lustre would be dimmed at last, Phar Lap.
But you trailed him like a bloodhound till your nostrils touched his rump
Then your jockey asked the question and, with one tremendous jump,
Something like a chestnut meteor hurtled past a blur of black
And, before the crowd stopped gasping, you were halfway down the track,
And, the further that you travelled, ever wider grew the gap,
And you broke another record—one you’d set yourself, Phar Lap.
The hopes of all Australians travelled with you overseas,
Wishing to inspire you to further victories.
And at Agua Caliente you proved you were the best,
Then your great heart stopped beating—so they brought it home to rest.
And Australians won’t forget you while the roots of life hold sap,
For the greatest racehorse that was ever foaled was you, Phar Lap.
Jorrocks the ‘Iron Gelding’, our first popular champion racehorse. (DIANNA CORCORAN/AJC)
Carbine at age four with trainer Walter Hickenbotham and VRC Chairman R.G. Casey. (ARM)
The mighty Wakeful posing for the camera for an early newspaper poster.
Bernborough leads out the field at Flemington before carrying 63 kg to victory in the Newmarket Handicap on 2 March 1946 (ERN MCQUILLAN/AJC)
The heyday of racing—Randwick racecourse in the 1950s. (AJC)
Reserved seating at the Wallabadah Races, c.1950. (PETER JENKINS)
Part of the Randwick racecourse betting ring in the 1950s, before the advent of legal off-course betting. (AJC)
The Paddock betting ring at Randwick after the last race, c.1960. (AJC)
Tommy Smith wit
h Tulloch at the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, c.1960. (AJC)
Dalby Ladies Improver Handicap 1974. Pam O’Neill is third from the left in the back row. (QUEENSLAND RACING LIMITED)
The Hobartville Stakes at Warwick Far, 1962. (AJC)
Randwick racecourse c.1965 showing four enclosures—Flat, Leger, Paddock and Members. (AJC)
Racing in the bush.
Racing in the city. (AJC)
Octagonal wins the 1996 AJC Derby from Saintly Filante and Nothin’ Leica Dane. (STEVE HART PHOTOGRAPHICS)
Lonhro with Darren Beadman wins the Caulfield Stakes from the great Sunline with Greg Childs on 12 October 2002. (STEVE HART PHOTOGRAPHICS)
A cigarette card featuring The Barb.
Archer pictured in a newspaper sketch of the day, carrying Etienne de Mestre’s famous all-black colours. (AJC)
A cigarette card featuring Briseis. (ARM)
Off to the Melbourne Cup, c.1880. (VRC)
Carbine wins the Melbourne Cup in 1890. (AJC)
A newspaper artist’s impression of the 1891 Cup atmosphere at Flemington. (VRC)
The Cup-day crowd watch Bravo win the 1889 Melbourne Cup. (VRC)
Brighton Pony Racecourse in 1900. (WAYNE PEAKE/STATE LIBRARY OF NSW)
He Flew It Like a Bird, Stuart Allen c.1910. (DAY FINE ART)
C.J. Dennis.
14.1 Handicap at Rosebery, 11 December 1918, won by Dol Merv. (WAYNE PEAK/STATE LIBRARY OF NSW)
Crowd at Kensington racetrack c.1920. (WAYNE PEAK/STATE LIBRARY OF NSW)
Ascot racecourse in 1926. (AJC)
Trivalve c.1927. (AJC)
Light Fingers (outside) defeats stable mate Ziema by a nose in the 1965 Melbourne Cup. (NEWSPIX)
Reckless and Tommy Woodcock share a stable bedroom before the 1977 Melbourne Cup. (BRUCE POSTLE/FAIRFAX PHOTOS)
The late Bart Cummings shows Viewed the Melbourne Cup, Bart’s 12th, after the horse’s victory in the big race on 4 November 2008. (DAVID GERAGHTY/NEWSPIX)
Damien Oliver looks Heavenward after winning the 2002 Melbourne Cup on Media Puzzle. (RICHARD CISAR-WRIGHT/NEWSPIX)
Glen Boss celebrates Makybe Diva’s first Melbourne Cup victory on 4 November 2003. (DARREN MCNAMARA/NEWSPIX)
Frank McGrath—the master trainer of great stayers such as Peter Pan, Prince Foote and Amounis. (NEWSPIX)
Azzalin Romano. (NATIONAL ARCHIVE)
A postcard showing Western Australian champion Eurythmic with F. Dempsey in the saddle. (ARM)
Phar Lap. (ARM)
Amounis wins the 1930 Caulfield Cup and sets up the biggest Cups double betting coup of all time. (ARM)
Phar Lap wins the 1930 Melbourne Cup. (ARM)
Mosstrooper. (PETER HARRIS)
Jim Bendrodt chats to his good mate, champion jockey Billy Cook. (ARM)
The Cent. (OAKBANK RACING CLUB)
RedRum (outside) defeats Crisp at the Grand National at Aintree in 1973. (EMPICS)
Roughneck wins the Great Eastern in 1978. (OAKBANK RACING CLUB)
Hallo Dandy at the Grand National in 1984. (EMPICS)
Trei Gnaree at the Grand National in 1990. (VRC)
Jim Haynes with Adam Lindsay Gordon. (R. MCMILLAN)
GLOSSARY
ALLOWANCES The weight a horse must carry can be reduced because an apprentice is riding the horse—this allowance starts at 4 kilograms and reduces in stages as the apprentice rides a certain number of winners, until he or she may have ‘outridden their allowance’.
APPRENTICE An apprentice is a future jockey. He or she must be at least sixteen years of age. In less important races, apprentices receive weight allowances.
BETTING RING A betting ring is the group of bookmakers taking bets on the race day on the course.
BIRDCAGE A birdcage is an enclosure where horses parade and are unsaddled after a race. Only authorised people are permitted in this area.
BLEED Horses occasionally bleed at the nose due to rupturing blood vessels. These horses have to be excluded from racing for a time, and horses that bleed twice are banned from racing again.
BLINKERS Blinkers are side pieces attached to a horse’s head to prevent sideways vision. They are used to keep horses focused.
BOG TRACK If the turf is extremely wet, it is described as a bog track. In Australia track conditions are listed as fast (close to perfect), good, dead, slow and heavy (very wet).
BOOKMAKER The bookmaker is the person who sets the odds for a race and takes the bets on it. Skilled bookmakers set their ‘book’ to win most races.
BROODMARE A broodmare is a female horse used for breeding.
COLT A colt is a male horse that has not been gelded and is less than four years old.
CRACK In horse circles ‘crack’ means the best. It can refer to the horse or the jockey.
CUP The Melbourne Cup is the only true cup race, although many cups can be won in racing. It originated in 1861 and was run over 2 miles, now 3200 metres. The Melbourne Cup is a handicap race for all horses and is held on the first Tuesday in November.
DAM A horse’s female parent; a granddam is the female grandparent. A horse is said to be ‘out of’ its dam.
DEAD HEAT The term dead heat is used when two horses cross the finish line together. When races were run over three heats, any dead heats were re-run.
DERBY The Derby originated in England in 1780, with the first Derby held in Surrey at Epsom Downs. The race was named after the winner of the toss of a coin between the 12th Earl of Derby and Sir Charles Bunbury. Diomed, owned by the steward of the jockey club, Sir Charles Bunbury, won the first Derby. Traditionally the Derby is the classic race of the turf, restricted to three-year-old horses and run over 1½ miles (2400 metres).
DISTANCE A large pole situated on each racecourse in earlier times, sometimes about a furlong from the winning post or near the turn, was known as ‘the distance’ and horses that did not ‘make the distance’ in a heat were ‘out of the running’ and could not compete in the subsequent heats.
FILLY A filly is a female horse less than four years old. When a filly becomes a four-year-old, she is called a mare. Once a mare gets to stud, she becomes a broodmare.
FIRST-UP A horse returning to the races from a spell is said to be first-up. If that horse wins its first race, it is referred to as a first-up victory. Some horses are ‘first-up’ specialists and race well ‘fresh’.
FLAT The public enclosure in the centre of the track with a restricted view of the races. A very cheap or free enclosure, now defunct in Australia except at Oakbank.
FLAT RACING Racing without jumping.
FURLONG A furlong is one-eighth of a mile, or 201.168 metres after metric measurements were introduced in Australia on 1 August 1972.
GELDING A gelding is a male horse whose testicles have been surgically removed. In general, geldings are easier to train.
HANDICAP A handicap is a race where the horses are given advantages or disadvantages in weight to give each entrant an equal chance of winning.
HANDS The height of a horse is measured in hands; 1 hand equals 4 inches or 11.6 centimetres. Most thoroughbred horses stand at 15 to 17 hands. A horse is generally taller than 14.3 hands or 59 inches (150 centimetres). Under that it is a ‘pony’.
LAYING IN/LAYING OUT Under pressure or when fatigued, some horses tend to shift ground to one side or the other.
LEGER The second best, and less expensive, public enclosure at racetracks, a furlong from the winning post—now defunct.
LENGTH In racing, place and winning margins are measured in lengths. A length is the distance from the nose of a winning horse to its hindquarters. As horses vary in size, so does the length; however, the variation is very small. On average a length is slightly greater than 2 metres. Margins of less than a length are a neck, a half-neck, a half-head, a short half-head and a nose.
MAIDEN A horse that has never won a race; or a race for such horses.
MEMBERS ‘The Members’ is the enclosure reserved for the members of that club and their guests
. It has the best view of the course and the winning post.
OAKS The Oaks race day originated in England in 1779 and is the female equivalent of the Derby, restricted to three-year-old fillies. It was named after the Surrey residence of the Earl of Derby.
ODDS The bookmaker sets the odds or probability of a horse winning the race. As the amount of money bet on a horse increases, the odds are reduced as the horse’s chances of winning seem to increase.
PADDOCK The main public enclosure on a racetrack, these days often called the Public Enclosure (as opposed to the Members). Originally it was a paddock where horses were paraded, saddled and mounted before each race.
PLUNGE A large amount of money suddenly invested on one horse—often in a planned ‘coup’ in an attempt to get as much money on as possible before the odds are lowered.
ST LEGER A classic long-distance race.
SECOND UP The second race after a ‘spell’. Horses are generally thought to perform poorly ‘second up’.
SHIFT OUT A horse that ‘shifts out’ moves away from the fence to a firmer, faster part of the track or to get a clear run. If forced to do so, a horse may also shift towards the fence. Horses often drift in or out when tired or whipped, this is referred to as ‘shifting under pressure’.