When you think of famous foals in history, what comes to mind? Whether it is the red rabbit horse that travels thousands of miles under Lü Bu's crotch, or the Western Chu Overlord mount Uya, which is known as the world's first horse, unfortunately, these BMWs are ultimately unknown, and people don't even know whether they really existed in history.
However, there is such a horse, which attracted much attention before his death, and after his death, he was made into a specimen and enjoyed the treatment of national treasure-level cultural relics. This is the historical name Phar Lap, which is well known in Australia.
Are Australians well fed, is a horse like that? It all started with Australia's horse racing event, the Melbourne Cup. The tournament was founded in 1861 and has a history of 161 years. Australians love horse racing, and the Melbourne Cup is like a must-have carnival every year for them, so the event is also known as "the race that takes the whole of Australia to breathe".
The rules of the race are simple, allowing thoroughbred horses aged three or older to race, with a total distance of about 3200 meters, and the first horse to run the full distance wins. In fact, it is only part of the Victoria Jockey Club in Australia, and saying that it is a jockey club is actually more like an annual horse racing carnival.
Every year, after entering November, there are as many as four or five horse races, and there are six or seven events in each race, and it can be said that Australia in November is suspended for horse racing. Today, hundreds of thousands of people flock to Melbourne's Fermington Racecourse every year, with as many as 120 countries and 700 million viewers around the world watching live broadcasts via satellite signals to cheer on their beloved racehorses.
And our protagonist Phil became famous in this event. On October 4, 1926, a very humble pony was born on new Zealand's South Island. Although from a horse racing family, his paternal line won only two titles in 35 appearances in the United Kingdom, and only achieved good results after coming to Australia. The matriarchal side is good at long-distance running, winning the 3600m schedule. The owner of the horse thinks that this horse is not good-looking, there is no line, no beauty, it must be stupid and stupid, it can be said that there is no future at all, it is better to sell it early.
So in 1928, the American businessman Davis thought the horse was promising, so he auctioned it off at auction and gave it to Harry Telford, a famous horse trainer in Sydney, for training. Harry found in the training process that this fierce horse does have excellent explosiveness and speed, and the endurance is also very amazing, and it has the potential to become a legendary racing horse, but it is too disobedient and too temperamental. What can I do about this? So he found Davis, and the two of them summed up, and there was no other trick. Phil was castrated.
In February 1929, Phil finally had the first race of his career at Rose Hill Racecourse, and you can't tell you that the horse was really good, and immediately took the first place, but only the bottom one. The trainer didn't think anything at the time, after all, when he first appeared on the big stage, he had to have a process of adaptation. Who knows that the next three games, one after another, one defeat after another, angry Davis scolded Harry as a liar, saying that as far as you are concerned, you are still a famous foal, the whole lazy donkey grinding ah!
The gold lord was angry, and Harry couldn't help it, he got it! Just throw it away, go back to the debut race, just do it, don't sell the horse early. So in April 1929, Phil returned to his debut at Marseille, and this time he was really angry, taking the lead of half a horse to win the first championship of his career. Harry was happy at this time, Phil's success was at least half the credit for his own horse training, he finally did not look away, and years of hard work of cultivation were finally not in vain.
In the days that followed, Phil rose steadily, first winning the crown at Rose Hill, followed by three consecutive wins in the Australian derby, JiaYundun and Victoria derby. As a grand horse racing event, participating in the Melbourne Cup is a great honor for every horse racer and trainer. Therefore, it is also paid special attention to by Harry.
Phil's first competition, slightly inexperienced, in the face of the elderly horses who have repeatedly participated in the event, he is still a fledgling rookie, and it is such a rookie horse, still won the third place. Then it was the autumn game, and Phil seemed to have found his best at once, winning nine games in a row, sweeping the February 1930 Fermington and Sydney events, and it can be said that it has won trophies large and small.
Here we need to explain the social environment at that time, when the global economic Depression was in the period, the Australian economy naturally suffered an extremely heavy blow, the unemployment rate reached an unprecedented 30%, and a large number of workers were laid off. Faced with a hopeless life, many poor people pin their dreams on the horse racing and gambling industry. Vent your emotions by watching the horse races, and try your luck by betting on horses in order to get rich overnight. As a victorious general at that time, there were naturally a large number of poor people who put their bets on Phil. Phil also lived up to expectations and often provided unexpected gains for bettors.
However, because of the huge economic interests involved, Phil has had a bad fate since winning the championship. In the spring of 1930, during the melbourne championships, Phil had just finished a lap when he heard a gunshot from the stands. The audience was in a state of confusion. This must have been someone who wanted to assassinate it, and fortunately, the bullet did not hit the target, but the murderer also escaped. However, Phil was not affected by the incident, and at a load of 138 pounds, he still easily won the championship with a huge advantage of 3 horse positions, becoming a legend at the Melbourne Cup.
In the spring of 1931, Phil once again completed a triple of the Kyaw Shield with a wave of eight consecutive wins, but it did not perform well in the traditional Melbourne Cup, also because the weight was too heavy, and the overload of 150 pounds exhausted Phil, and finally only ran out of the eighth place.
Davis saw that we had almost won the prize in Australia, so it was better to take advantage of this defeat and take Phil back to his hometown of the United States. But Harry naturally disagreed, but helplessly, the horse was bought by someone else, and in the end he could only agree to take the horse to the United States. Harry is not at ease, however, and allows his stable assistant, Tommy, to go with him, but neither he nor Davis knows that their inadvertent move eventually led to the death of Phil.
In January 1932, a group of people finally crossed the ocean to the United States. Upon arrival, Tommy didn't rush to get Phil into any event, but instead went through two weeks of adaptive recovery training.
Their first goal was the Aguacaret Race in Mexico, the highest prize-winning horse racing event in North America at the time, where many famous horses and trainers would gather. It can be seen that they were looking forward to Phil's success here, so he also invited billy Elliot, a famous rider at the time, to ride. And they learned the lesson of their last defeat, carrying just 129 pounds for Phil.
As the highest prize money race in North America, Phil's opponents are naturally not to be underestimated, including the American derby champion "Reveille Boy" and the local Mexican famous foal "Scimitar". Tommy and Billy carefully analyzed the technical characteristics of each horse and agreed that Phil was less of an advantage in the initial stages and that it would be better to focus his training on mid-to-mid-range sprints.
As they expected, Phil did start slowly during the race, leaving him behind by several experienced old horses at the beginning, but his advantage was the explosiveness of the mid-section and the enduring endurance, catching up with the opponents one by one, and the Mexican audience present was stunned. Even it eventually crossed the finish line in a record-breaking fashion, and Phil, who won the championship in his first race, was a blockbuster and immediately caused a sensation in the entire North American horse racing world.
After the victory, just when the team was planning to make a big show in the United States, misfortune came. On the twelfth day after winning the championship, Phil had a high fever, and by the time Tommy found out, he had died of heavy bleeding, which stunned everyone. After a police investigation, it was basically determined that it died of overdose of arsenic.
How can a famous foal with good end be poisoned to death? In order to find out the truth behind the scenes, Phil's body was transported back to Australia, where researchers at the University of Sydney dissected it, but as soon as the operation was opened, it was discovered that the horse was different from other horses, which surprised all the anatomists present. That's the heart of the horse.
The average horse's heart weight is 6 to 7 pounds, the heart in front of us actually weighs 12.7 pounds, we know the largest animal on land elephant, its average heart weight is about 12 kg, and the horse's heart weight is actually half of the elephant's weight, it is really breathtaking. No wonder it has such amazing explosiveness and endurance. It's like Fujiwara Takumi's TOYOTA AE86 in "Head Text D" equipped with an in-line 4-cylinder DOHC20 Valve that is instantly invincible, and Phil, who has such a big heart, can show great strength on the field.
In order to understand why this horse had such a strong heart, the investigators deliberately consulted its family history, all the way up and down for 100 years, back to an English racehorse in the middle of the 18th century, it had the same huge heart as Phil, and won all 18 races, and its good genes were passed down from generation to generation, until Phil's generation reached its peak again.
Unfortunately, Phil was poisoned before he could achieve more brilliant results, but was he poisoned? Or is it eaten by mistake? Regrettably, with the criminal investigation methods and scientific and technological level at that time, in the end, no reason was found. Of course, combined with the social background of the United States in the 1930s, the underworld was rampant, and violent crime, drugs, and assassinations were not uncommon. The horse racing industry is directly related to the gambling industry. Just as the so-called strong dragon does not suppress the head snake, Phil as an outsider, in the North American arena shines, naturally will touch the interests of many local gambling groups, and the interests of the underworld boss, we have every reason to believe that Phil was poisoned by the gang.
Although the horse died, the ensuing storm did not subside, first of all, the ownership of this famous horse. The New Zealander said: Phil was originally a stallion bred in New Zealand, and its ownership should belong to us in New Zealand. New Zealand has no problem saying this, after all, Phil's birthplace is in New Zealand. According to the rules of the horse racing world, wherever a horse is born should belong. But the Australians did not do it, they questioned: this horse breeding, feeding, breeding training is all in our Australia, won all the awards are almost all won in our Australia, and you New Zealand have a relationship? You are called to see the honor on the top, send you four big words: stink no face!
The two sides fought with red faces. Later, the top level of the two heads of state saw that this was not a matter, for a horse, what should we do, the two countries still have to use knives and guns? So the two countries finally negotiated to take a step back: they made Phil's skeleton into a specimen and stored it in the National Museum of Wellington, New Zealand, while the big heart just mentioned was preserved by the National Museum of Australia.
The United States looks at it, this heat we also have to rub ah! Although Phil died without a game in the United States, the famous American horse racing magazine "Blood-horse" still ranked it as one of the top 100 American colt racehorses of the 20th century, ranking 22nd, which even surpassed John Henry, the king of the North American grass race, and the hero seabiscuit from the commoners. This is really brazen, obviously Phil was killed by the Americans, and you are not ashamed to rate it as an American famous colt racehorse, and you will really put gold on your face.
In 1983, Australia specially filmed a Phil-themed horse racing movie, although half a century has passed, but the story of this famous pony still attracts a large number of Australians to the theater to watch, it can be said that the film was full when it was released. Phil competed in 51 races in his lifetime, winning 37 championship titles, in addition to three runners-up and two third-place finishes, including mexico's North American War, winning a total of 66,738 Australian pounds. It is precisely because of the outstanding achievements that after entering the 21st century, when the Australian and New Zealand Horse Racing Hall was established, it was almost undisputed that this horse was selected as a palace horse, which can be described as the treasure of the town store. Later, it was upgraded to a legendary horse in 2007.
If you do not look at the gambling nature of horse racing, the horse itself has the courage to fight and swim against the current, but it can be called a courageous and positive spirit. Phil was in particular in his special era, which provided motivation for countless people to face the cruelty of life. And its story has also been praised by Australians from generation to generation, and has been passed on overseas, making it a legend in the history of world horse racing.