Legend of Phar Lap rides again

BY LUCY VICKERS

With rippling muscles and flaring nostrils, Joanne Sullivan-Gessler’s statue of Phar Lap is exact down to the placing of the bridle buckle.

And it’s nearly ready for its unveiling to Phar Lap Charitable Trust members in Coatesville on May 2.

The Greenhithe sculptor was commissioned by the organisation to create a life-sized replica of the 17.1-hand champion gelding.

It will show him in 27-foot stride ridden by jockey Jim Pike.

Mrs Sullivan-Gessler has sculpted various horses.

Her works have been shown around the world, earning her full membership with the American Academy of Equine Art.

But she says this is her biggest project to date.

She was intent on getting the statue right, so much so that she got an equine veterinarian and champion trainer Colin Jillings to look at it.

He called the impression "exceptional".

"Joanne needs 100 percent marks for this. It is marvellous, marvellous."

Her research alone took nine months and she points out detail such as the ears which Phar Lap "flicked" at the end of most races.

Mrs Sullivan-Gessler says given the popularity of the horse, she knew there would be many experts scrutinising her work.

To create the large sculpture, she took a small statuette to the United States where it was looked at by experts, digitally scanned and enlarged.

The parts were created in dense styrofoam and sent back to New Zealand, where Mrs Sullivan-Gessler has covered them in about 120kg of clay.

The statue will be cast in bronze and moved south to his home town of Timaru in November.

As a homage to Phar Lap’s birthplace, the horse will stand with his hoof over the town on a map of New Zealand.

The base will be a water fountain with water sounds emulating galloping hoof beats.

Phar Lap’s name is etched in New Zealand’s history as a champion.

At three years old his first four starts were unplaced.

After that his only unplaced start was the 1931 Melbourne Cup, where he was anchored by 68kg weights, at the time the heaviest ever carried for the event.

Researchers believe arsenic poisoning led to his premature death in 1932.

- © Fairfax NZ News