Phar Lap's last supreme feat explained

One of the questions surrounding legendary New Zealand racehorse Phar Lap's last race may have been answered by an Auckland physicist.

Dr Graeme Putt, of Auckland University, applied physics to footage of Phar Lap races to give new insight into the chestnut gelding's feats.

After winning the Melbourne Cup in 1930 and a string of other races that made him a household name during the Depression, Phar Lap was shipped to America to compete.

His last race, the Agua Caliente Handicap, near Tijuana, Mexico, in March 1932, offered what was then the largest purse ever raced for in North America.

Sixteen days later, on April 5, Phar Lap died in California.

The Mexican race was epic Phar Lap – starting slow, last in the field, he kept wide and took his time, passing every other horse and opening a lead of three lengths until he came into the final turn.

Suddenly he slowed for a few strides. The rest of the field caught him but he kicked back into action and streaked ahead again to win.

Dr Putt found Phar Lap split a hoof in training and was strapped into a special shoe. It caused no problems while galloping in a straight line. But on the home straight turn he would suddenly have encountered "lateral force", which would have caused the hoof to slide painfully in the shoe.

Phar Lap was "considered highly intelligent" said Dr Putt, so the smart thing to do would have been to slow, get round the curve, then open up again.

Gerald Fell, chairman of the New Zealand Bloodstock Racing Hall of Fame and owner of the Fairdale Stud which bred former Melbourne Cup winner Hyperno in 1979, said it was a plausible explanation.

"There could be some logic in that. The track that he ran on in Tijuana, it was a very tight, sharp-turning circuit. That theory would hold some water."

Dr Putt also wrote a paper on Phar Lap's "kinetics" – his motion and acceleration – based on a winning run in Australia in 1930.

It showed he had an "enormous" 8.2-metre stride and was easily the fastest horse seen at the time, capable of stunning acceleration, Dr Putt said.

"He just communed with nature in that run."

Dr Putt's lifelong fascination with Phar Lap has culminated in his writing a book, due out this month, with Timaru sports journalist Pat McCord. It coincides with a bronze statue of Phar Lap, larger than life size, being shipped from Auckland this week to Timaru racecourse, where it will be unveiled next week.

The book reveals new details about Phar Lap's Kiwi origins, said Dr Putt, who has discovered more about the horse's breeder and South Island property magnate Alex Roberts, who wrongly thought the foal was too big and gangly to be a champion.

As for the greatest Phar Lap mystery of them all – was he poisoned? – despite Australian scientists finding arsenic in hair samples from the horse's hide last year, Dr Putt is sceptical.

"My view is that the jury is still out on the poisoning."

- © Fairfax NZ News