Phar Lap (film)
Encyclopedia
1983 in film
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film about the Australian racehorse Phar Lap
Phar Lap
Phar Lap was a champion Thoroughbred racehorse whose achievements captured the public's imagination during the early years of the Great Depression. Foaled in New Zealand, he was trained and raced in Australia. Phar Lap dominated Australian racing during a distinguished career, winning a Melbourne...
. The film starred Tom Burlinson
Tom Burlinson
Tom Burlinson is an Australian actor and singer.He attended Pittwater High School on Sydney's Northern Beaches and was the School Captain in his final year...
and was written by famous Australian playwright David Williamson
David Williamson
David Keith Williamson AO is one of Australia's best-known playwrights. He has also written screenplays and teleplays.-Biography:...
.
Plot
Phar Lap, known affectionately as "Bobby" by his strapper Tommy WoodcockTommy Woodcock
Aaron Treve "Tommy" Woodcock was the Australian handler of the racehorse Phar Lap.He was born at Uralgurra, near Kempsey, New South Wales, in 1905. Woodcock served an apprenticeship as a jockey under Barney Quinn, who was based at Randwick, in Sydney. He won several starts, and worked as a jockey...
(Burlinson), collapses and dies in Woodcock's arms, at Menlo Park in California, in 1932. The news is greeted with great sadness and anger in Australia. The remainder of the film is done as flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...
.
Five years earlier, Phar Lap arrives in Australia, purchased unseen from New Zealand. His trainer Harry Telford (Vaughan) and Telford's wife Vi watch as he's lowered onto the wharf by sling. Mrs Telford comments that she "wonders what his (Telford's) American friend (owner David Davis (Leibman)) will think?". Davis is not impressed with the underweight, wart-ridden colt and orders Telford to sell him immediately. Telford protests, saying that the horse's pedigree
Purebred
Purebreds, also called purebreeds, are cultivated varieties or cultivars of an animal species, achieved through the process of selective breeding...
is exceptional, with Carbine
Carbine (horse)
Carbine , was an outstanding New Zealand bred Thoroughbred racehorse, who competed in New Zealand and later Australia. During his racing career he won 30 stakes or principal races...
on both sides of his bloodlines. Davis agrees to lease him to Telford for three years, keeping only one third of the winnings. Telford must pay for his upkeep.
As Phar Lap is brought into the stables, he and Woodcock form a strong bond. When the young strapper complains about how hard Telford works the horse, Telford sacks him. He has to reinstate Woodcock when the horse stops eating.
Phar Lap fails badly in his first few races, but Woodcock educates the horse by holding him back in trackwork, sensing that he likes to come from behind. This pays off at the AJC Derby run at Randwick
Randwick Racecourse
Royal Randwick Racecourse is a racecourse for horseracing in the Eastern Suburbs in Sydney, New South Wales. Randwick Racecourse, is operated by the Australian Jockey Club and known to many Sydney racegoers as headquarters...
, Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. The film shows this as Phar Lap's first win although his first was actually the RRC Maiden Juvenile Handicap in the previous racing season. The win saves Phar Lap from being sold and Telford from bankruptcy
Personal bankruptcy
Personal bankruptcy is a procedure which, in certain jurisdictions, allows an individual to declare bankruptcy. In other jurisdictions, bankruptcies are reserved for corporations.-Canada:...
.
As the Depression bites, Phar Lap wins every race he enters. Davis attempts to capitalise on his success through shady betting schemes, something Telford wants no part of. In preparation for the Melbourne Cup, the premier race in Australia, Davis pressures Telford to scratch Phar Lap from the Caulfield Cup, to maximise Davis's betting returns. Under great financial pressure, Telford reluctantly agrees. As Woodcock walks the horse back from track work, someone tries to shoot the horse in the street. Woodcock and Phar Lap go into hiding at a stud farm outside Melbourne, arriving at Flemington Racecourse
Flemington Racecourse
Flemington Racecourse is a major horse racing venue located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is most notable for hosting the Melbourne Cup, which is Australia's richest horse race. The racecourse is situated on low alluvial flats, next to the Maribyrnong River...
at the very last minute for the 1930 Melbourne Cup
Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race. Marketed as "the race that stops a nation", it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races...
. Phar Lap wins, ridden by champion jockey Jim Pike. In the 1931 Cup, the VRC
Victoria Racing Club
The Victoria Racing Club was founded in 1864. It was formed following the disbanding of the Victoria Turf Club and the Victoria Jockey Club. A legacy passed from the Victoria Turf Club was the annual “race that stops a nation”, the Melbourne Cup, which was first contested in 1861.From its...
imposes an unprecedented weight of 10 st 10 lb (68 kg), "to better horse racing". Phar Lap surges to the lead but fades and finishes eighth, and the racing authorities face jeering crowds. The horse is now back under Davis's control, after the three year agreement runs out. Davis then offers half of Phar Lap's ownership to Telford for ₤20,000, for which Telford refuses. Telford then has an injury faked on the horse and hoodwinks Davis into thinking that the Red Terror is lame and agreeing to sell the half share for only ₤4,000. Davis realises he's been had when Phar lap easily wins his next race.
After the 1931 Melbourne Cup, Davis is approached by about racing Phar Lap in the Agua Caliente Handicap
Agua Caliente Handicap
The Agua Caliente Handicap is a defunct thoroughbred horse race that was once the premier event at Agua Caliente Racetrack in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, and the richest race in North America...
at the Agua Caliente Racetrack
Agua Caliente Racetrack
The Agua Caliente Racetrack is a greyhound racing and former horse racing track in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. It opened in December 1929 at a cost of $2.5 million.One year before, the Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel opened in June 1928....
in Tijuana
Tijuana
Tijuana is the largest city on the Baja California Peninsula and center of the Tijuana metropolitan area, part of the international San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. An industrial and financial center of Mexico, Tijuana exerts a strong influence on economics, education, culture, art, and politics...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Davis, knowing that the horse would never be allowed to race fairly in Australia while being so heavily weighted and also knowing that Weight for Age races offered less prize money, agree's but has to convince Telford its worthwhile. Telford initially disagrees citing Australia's Quarantine Laws but reluctantly agrees after Davis convinces him of the financial windfall if Phar Lap wins. Telford, saying that it has brought him "nothing but trouble" refuses to go himself, preferring to concentrate on his new stud and stables at Braeside
Braeside, Victoria
Braeside is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 26 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Kingston...
, south of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and promotes Woodcock to be Phar Lap's trainer knowing the horse wouldn't do anything without Woodcock there with him.
After Arriving in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Woodcock soon clashes with Davis over the new trainers softer methods and sometimes non-cooperative ways, including taking Phar Lap away from a press conference and back to his stable before the conference was finished. Woodcock also doesn't listen to advice about different horse shoes to suit the different track surface and Phar Lap badly cracks his front right hoof further hampering his preparation for the big race. Before the race word gets out that some jockeys may have been bribed to keep him boxed into the rails during the race not allowing him to win and keep gamblers from losing large amounts of money so Davis instructs Phar Lap's jockey (Billy Elliot) to lead from the start. Woodcock immediately counters this by telling Elliot to run Phar Lap's normal race of starting slow and finishing fast. Using Woodcock's advice, Phar Lap wins the Agua Caliente Handicap in Mexico, blood streaming from a split hoof. He dies soon after, in suspicious circumstances.
The Thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
gelding who played Phar Lap was Towering Inferno. He was bred by Shirley Pye-Macmillan at Walcha, New South Wales
Walcha, New South Wales
Walcha is a parish and town at the south-eastern edge of the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia.The town serves as the seat of Walcha Shire. Walcha is located 425 kilometres by road from Sydney at the intersection of the Oxley Highway and Thunderbolts Way...
and later owned by Heath Harris. Towering Inferno was killed by lightning on 15 April 1999. The real Tommy Woodcock played a trainer in the movie.
Differences from country to country
In the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
version of the film the story is played out in a more traditional way with the film opening with Phar Lap getting off the boat. This was done to make the ending more dramatic, since in the United States the story of Phar Lap was not well known.