Wink of the Sky

A party of reporters visited the Ed Perry Ranch at Menlo Park, Calif, one morning last week to have a look at Phar Lap, the huge red gelding from Australia that won the Agua Caliente Handicap (TIME, March 28). When stable attendants refused them access to the great horse's stall, the visitors grew suspicious. Perhaps Phar Lap was sick. They waited around.

In the afternoon the truth came out. With tears in their eyes the stablemen announced that Phar Lap was dead.

Like his name, which in Javanese means "Wink of the Sky" (Lightning), Phar Lap's death was sudden, frightful, mysterious. His trainer, Tommy Woodcock, who always slept within a few feet of Phar Lap's stall, had gone into the stall early in the morning and found Phar Lap lying down. He had called Phar Lap's veterinary, Dr. Walter Nielsen. They diagnosed colic. As the big, long-legged carcass stiffened, Dr. Nielsen took out its stomach and entrails. These told him that Phar Lap had been ill two days.

Although he had been closely guarded ever since someone tried to shoot him near Melbourne two years ago, there were rumors last week that Phar Lap had been poisoned, murdered. The police of Menlo Park ordered his oats examined. For three days, Government chemists analyzed samples of grass and leaves which Phar Lap might have nibbled. Then W. W. Vincent, chief of the Western District of the Food & Drug Administration, announced that tests on grass from a plot whence Trainer null had pulled green fodder for his charge showed .01 grains of arsenic per pound. The poison could have been blown into the plot of grass from nearby trees which were lately sprayed. The spray, in addition to the arsenic, contained arsenate of lead. But Dr. Karl Meyer of the University of California, after analyzing the lining of Phar Lap's vitals, said he could find no trace of poison in preliminary tests.

Owner of Phar Lap, David J. Davis of San Francisco, who had leased the horse to Harry R. Telford of Melbourne for four years, said that Phar Lap was not insured. He planned to have the handsome hide mounted, sent to New Zealand, the heart sent to an anatomical museum in Melbourne.

Phar Lap was huge--16 hands, 3 1/2 in.-- with a huge leisurely stride. He was a seven-year-old in the U. S., a six-year-old in Australia.* He was the son of Night-raid, out of Entreaty. When Phar Lap was shipped from England to Australia in 1927, he was sold at auction for $800. In 51 starts in the next four years he won 37 races, finished second thrice. Australians considered him the greatest racehorse in the world. Last winter with five attendants and enough New Zealand oats to last three months, Phar Lap crossed the Pacific for American conquests. His easy victory at Agua Caliente dispelled all doubt that his presence would make 1932 a great U. S. turf year.

His earnings were $332,250, second to Sun Beau's all-time record of $356.044. His disposition was eccentric but calm. He liked to roll in sand every day, had a special sand pile to do it in. At the post or when traveling, he was intelligently placid. A great subject of racetrack conversation was the method of Phar Lap's training. In the U. S., horses are given constant rigorous tests for speed. Phar Lap engaged in almost no speed trials at all. He cantered slowly for long distances to improve his stamina, stretch all his muscles slowly. U. S. turfmen expected that because of Phar Lap's prestige this method of training might gain popularity; that because of his death, owners of notable racehorses might be reluctant to risk sending them abroad.

*In the U. S., racehorses sain a year Jan. i, in Australia, Aug. I.

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