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Who Shot at Phar Lap?

When a mystery gunman opened fire at the mighty Phar Lap as he was coming back from training gallop before the 1930 Melbourne Cup, it was yet another chapter in the mighty red racehorse’s rapid rise to fame and notoriety that would make him live in Australian sporting legend forever.

Phar Lap, the 4-year-old New Zealander, had taken Australia by storm and beaten all before him. It was the beginning of the Great Depression and Australians needed an inspiration – man or beast – and Phar Lap was it.

In the weeks leading up to the Melbourne Cup, Phar Lap’s connections had received numerous phone calls and threatening letters saying that if they let the huge chestnut – who was nicknamed the red terror – take part, they would see to it that he was either injured or killed.

The owners took the threats seriously. There were many people who stood to lose fortunes if Phar Lap won the Cup. Most of all, it was the bookmakers who risked everything on the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup double should Phar Lap run and win.

Phar Lap’s owners had been shrewd in their betting and had originally entered Phar Lap in the Caulfield Cup, forcing many of the other fancied horses to withdraw as their owners figured that they had no chance of winning against the champion.

Phar Lap’s owners then backed Amounis and Phar Lap in the Caulfield–Melbourne Cup double and at the last moment scratched Phar Lap from the Caulfield Cup, leaving Amounis red hot favourite in the event at the miniscule odds of 2 to 1.

The Amounis/Phar Lap Melbourne Cup double looked unbeatable and at the long odds that Phar Lap’s connections had secured while Phar Lap was still a contender for the Caulfield Cup, if it got up it could mean bankruptcy for a lot of bookies.

When Amounis duly won the Caulfield Cup easily, leaving the bookies in dire trouble should the certainty Phar Lap win the Melbourne Cup, there seemed only one alternative. Make sure that the red terror didn’t make it to the starting gates in the 1930 Melbourne Cup. No matter what.

On the Saturday morning before the Melbourne Cup – Derby Day – Phar Lap’s legendary trainer, Tommy Woodcock was riding a pony and leading Phar Lap – who was heavily disguised with blankets and a hood – back from training when he walked the horse past a brand new blue Studebaker parked in the street. Woodcock recalled that the car’s number plates were blanked out with either chalk or white paint and that there were two men sitting in the front holding up newspapers to hide their faces.

Woodcock heard the car start up and as he looked around to see if he was being followed it sped up to him with the horn blaring and he could see the barrel of a double-barrelled shotgun sticking out from the passenger’s side window.

As the car drew alongside Woodcock and Phar Lap a shot rang out. Miraculously it missed both Phar Lap and the trainer and sprayed the fence and footpath with pellets. No one was hurt as the car sped away.

The police said that the attempt was obviously intended to wound Phar Lap in the flank and put him out of the coming Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup. They suspected that the blaring horn would hopefully cause Phar Lap to bolt and also cause him injury.

Although police launched a massive investigation into the shooting and questioned many suspects throughout Melbourne’s underworld, no one was ever charged with the shooting.

Phar Lap was put under around-the-clock armed guard and Tommy Woodcock slept on the straw beside him in his stable and never left the champion’s side until Melbourne Cup day.

To the loudest cheers ever heard at Flemington, from a crowd of more than 72,000 punters who all came to see their hero win, Jimmie Pike took the red terror to the lead at the turn in the 1930 Melbourne Cup, and as the immortal saying goes: it was ‘Phar Lap first, daylight second.’

It cost the bookies a motza.