On 4 October 2026, it will be 100 years since one of the most famous racehorses in history was born. Phar Lap's life was incredibly short, but in just five and a half years he went from an awkward, gangly youngster who showed little promise to a champion who captured the imagination of an entire nation. His story is one of extraordinary racing ability, courage and determination, but it is also a story about Australia during one of the hardest periods in its history and the hope that one remarkable horse gave to people who desperately needed something to believe in.
Phar Lap was born at Seadown Stud near Timaru, New Zealand, on 4 October 1926. He was by Night Raid, out of Entreaty, and as a yearling he was purchased for just £160 by American-born businessman David J. Davis. He was brought to Australia and placed with Sydney trainer Harry Telford, who would ultimately develop him into the champion the world came to know. Phar Lap certainly did not look like an obvious future superstar when he arrived. He was tall, narrow and somewhat ungainly, and his early racing record was anything but impressive. He failed to place in eight of his first nine starts, and there was little indication that this rather ordinary-looking colt would eventually become one of Australia's greatest sporting heroes.
Gradually, however, Phar Lap began to find his way. Once he hit his stride, the transformation was remarkable. The horse that had once struggled to make an impression began winning race after race, and by the end of his career he had won 37 of his 51 starts. He won over a range of distances and carried increasingly heavy weights as handicappers attempted to give his rivals a chance. His ability to accelerate, his toughness and his extraordinary consistency made him almost impossible to beat. In March 1930, he produced one of the most remarkable performances of his career when he won the King's Plate at Flemington by 20 lengths.
But Phar Lap's rise to fame happened at a very particular moment in Australian history. The Great Depression had taken hold following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, and Australia was experiencing enormous economic hardship. Unemployment was high, wages were falling and many families were struggling to put food on the table. For people living through those difficult years, entertainment was not simply about amusement. It could provide a temporary escape from the realities of everyday life, and Phar Lap became one of the biggest sources of that escape.
People followed his races with an enthusiasm that is difficult to imagine today. His name appeared regularly in newspapers, his races were broadcast on the radio and crowds gathered to follow his extraordinary winning run. For a country experiencing unemployment and uncertainty, Phar Lap gave people something to talk about and something to look forward to. When he raced, people could forget for a few minutes about the bills they couldn't pay, the jobs they couldn't find and the difficulties facing their families. They could simply cheer for their horse.
That connection between Phar Lap and ordinary Australians became particularly strong because of his own unlikely beginnings. He had not arrived in Australia looking like a champion, and his early results gave no indication of what was to come. His rise from an unimpressive youngster to a horse capable of dominating the best competition in the country was a story that resonated with people who were themselves trying to overcome difficult circumstances. The National Museum of Australia has described Phar Lap as embodying the hopes and dreams of ordinary Australians during the Depression, and it is easy to understand why his success meant so much to people at the time.
The 1930 Melbourne Cup was perhaps the defining moment of Phar Lap's Australian career. In the days leading up to the race, he was the target of an attempted shooting while being walked near Caulfield. The incident caused enormous public concern, but Phar Lap survived and was taken to Flemington under police escort on Melbourne Cup Day. On 4 November 1930, with Jim Pike in the saddle, he won the Melbourne Cup by three lengths. It was a victory that seemed to capture everything people had come to love about him. Despite the attempted attack and the enormous attention surrounding him, Phar Lap went to the starting line and did what he had so often done before: he won.
His dominance during this period was extraordinary. In 1930 alone, Phar Lap won 19 of his 21 starts, including races on all four days of the Melbourne Cup Carnival. He became known as Big Red and the Red Terror, names that reflected both his striking appearance and his seemingly relentless ability to defeat his rivals. There were occasions when other horses were withdrawn from races because connections did not believe they could beat him. The more he won, the greater the public fascination became, and Phar Lap had developed into far more than a successful racehorse. He was a national sporting hero.
His 1931 Melbourne Cup campaign provided another example of his remarkable ability. Phar Lap was asked to carry 10 stone 10 pounds, more than 68 kilograms, a huge weight for a racehorse and the heaviest weight assigned to a Melbourne Cup runner at that time. He was beaten into eighth place on the day, but by then his reputation was firmly established. His career had already become something much bigger than a single race or even a collection of race wins.
Eventually, there was little left for Phar Lap to prove in Australia. His connections decided to take him overseas, and in 1932 he travelled to North America to compete in the Agua Caliente Handicap in Tijuana, Mexico. The race offered a record prize and attracted international attention. Phar Lap arrived having already established himself as a phenomenon in Australia, and on 20 March 1932 he produced another extraordinary performance, winning the Agua Caliente Handicap in track-record time. It would prove to be the final race of his life.
Just 16 days later, Phar Lap was dead.
On 5 April 1932, while at a property in Menlo Park, California, Phar Lap became seriously ill and died. His sudden death shocked Australia. There was widespread speculation about what had happened to him, and the mystery surrounding his death has remained part of his story ever since. Scientific testing many years later provided strong evidence that he had been poisoned with arsenic, although exactly how he was exposed remains uncertain. What is certain is the enormous grief that followed his death. Australia had lost a horse that had become deeply woven into the national consciousness, and the timing made his loss even more poignant. The country was still in the depths of the Depression, and the horse that had provided so many people with excitement and hope was suddenly gone.
Even in death, Phar Lap was divided between the countries that had played different parts in his remarkable story. His hide was preserved and eventually became part of the collection at Melbourne Museum. His skeleton was returned to New Zealand and is displayed at Te Papa in Wellington. His heart remained in Australia and is held by the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. It is an extraordinary heart, weighing 6.35 kilograms, considerably heavier than the average thoroughbred heart, and it has become one of the most recognisable reminders of the physical power of the horse that Australians affectionately called Big Red.
A century after his birth, Phar Lap remains one of the most recognisable horses in Australian history. His racing record alone would have secured his place among the greats, but his legacy goes well beyond statistics. What made Phar Lap special was the connection he formed with people at a time when they needed something to lift their spirits. His races brought people together. His victories gave them something to celebrate, and his story offered a welcome distraction from the hardships of everyday life. For a few minutes, the Depression could be forgotten and everyone could simply listen for the sound of Phar Lap coming down the straight.
There have been many champion racehorses since Phar Lap, and there will undoubtedly be many more, but very few have ever meant as much to a nation as he did. His story has survived because it is about more than winning races. It is about an unlikely horse who overcame an unpromising beginning, became almost unbeatable, survived an attempted shooting, carried enormous weights, travelled across the world and won his final race before his life was tragically cut short.
Most of all, it is about what he represented to the people who watched him. During a time when so many Australians had very little certainty about the future, Phar Lap gave them something they could believe in. He gave them excitement when life was difficult, pride when the country was struggling and, perhaps most importantly, hope.
On 4 October 2026, 100 years after his birth, it is worth remembering not only the champion racehorse Phar Lap was, but the extraordinary place he came to hold in the hearts of the Australian people. His story has travelled through generations, from those who actually watched him race to those of us who know him through photographs, film, stories and the remarkable collection of his remains preserved across Australia and New Zealand.
Phar Lap may have lived for only five and a half years, but a century later his name is still known around the world. That is an extraordinary legacy for any horse.
Happy 100th birthday, Big Red!
A century on, Phar Lap remains a legend of the Australian turf and a reminder of the remarkable power a horse can have to inspire, unite and give people hope.
Photo: This is my own photo I took of Phar Lap on display at the Melbourne Museum. For the resources they would have had in 1932, considering there is no skeleton in the mount, the Jonas Brothers did an awesome job that still stands as a true depiction of ‘Big Red’.
