The many "curiosities" of horse racing revealed in entertaining new book

Phar Lap was a successful racehorse in 1930. He won 13 races, including two Derbys and two St. Legers, finished third in the 1929 Melbourne Cup and earned £26,976. Tommy Woodcock, Phar Lap's groom, received threats and was forced to change the route he took with Pharlap to Caulfield racecourse. A double-barrelled shotgun was fired through the window of a car. The pellets whistled harmlessly past. Phar lap was moved to a secret hiding place at St Albans, near Geelong. He was brought out again to win the Linlithgow Stakes and the Fisher Plate at Flemington.

Phar Lap died in 1932. His bones and hide were sent to Australia, along with his heart. The heart is now in the National Museum of Australia. Joseph Luke Fleury painted a painting titled Phar Lap Before the Chariot of the Sun. It depicted Pharlap at the head of Apollo’s chariot, surrounded by angels and the nine muses. Dame Nellie Melba played a harp. The painting is on display in Museum Victoria, Melbourne. In 1980, on the 50th anniversary of Phar lap's Melbourne Cup victory, it was paraded around Flemington racecourse.