What was Phar Lap?
Phar Lap was a champion racehorse who won the 1930 Melbourne Cup and became a hero to Australians during the Great Depression. His heart is displayed at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.
Phar Lap was a chestnut gelding born in New Zealand in 1926 and trained in Sydney by Harry Telford. He was so large and strong that he became known as the Red Terror.
He won 37 of his 51 races, including the 1930 Melbourne Cup, carrying a heavy weight. Days before the Cup, someone tried to shoot him, but he escaped unharmed.
Death in America
In 1932, Phar Lap won the Agua Caliente Handicap in Mexico, then one of the world's richest races. Weeks later, he died suddenly in California, and many Australians believed he had been poisoned.
Later tests suggested arsenic poisoning may have been involved, though the cause is still debated.
His preserved hide is displayed at Melbourne Museum, where it is one of the most popular exhibits, and his skeleton is at Te Papa in Wellington, New Zealand, his birth country.
His story was told in the 1983 film Phar Lap, and he was among the first inductees into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.
Did You Know?
His heart weighed about 6.2 kilograms, much larger than an average horse's heart, leading to the saying a heart as big as Phar Lap.