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Phar Lap
Phar Lap

Photographs supplied by Kent Watson

The sculpture of racehorse Phar Lap was commissioned by the Victorian racing Club and the Government of Victoria to commemorate the bicentenary of Australia. 

Phar Lap remains an enduring symbol of the Australian turf. A winner of 37 of his 51 starts, he started favorite in three successive Melbourne Cups, the only horse in the long history of Australia’s most famous race accorded that distinction. In a unique feat in 1930, he won a race on each of the four days of the 1930 Flemington spring carnival, including the Melbourne Cup with 6.8 kilograms more than weight-for-age.

Criminals in Melbourne tried to shoot him on the Saturday morning before his 1930 Melbourne Cup win and finally, tragically, he suffered an agonising death in mysterious circumstances in California, USA, on April 5, 1932, when he was only a five-year-old after having defied the odds to win an international race at Agua Caliente, in Mexico only days before.

Location

Address:448 Epsom Road, Birdcage Horses stalls, Flemington racecourse, Flemington, 3031
State:VIC
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -37.78586
Long: 144.919549
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Sculpture
Monument Theme:Culture
Sub-Theme:Animals
Artist:Peter Corlett (Melbourne, VIC)

Dedication

Actual Monument Dedication Date:Thursday 27th October, 1988
Front Inscription

Bronze statue of Phar Lap by Peter Corlett

Commissioned by the Victoria Racing Club and the Government of Victoria

To commemorate the Bicentenary of Australia was unveiled by the Hon N. B. Trezise M.P. Minister for Sport and Recreation
on 27 October 1988

Source: MA,VMR
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au