Diva vs Phar Lap
Rhett Kirkwood
October 29, 2005
EVEN 75 years after the most famous Melbourne Cup of them all, Phar Lap's hero status continues to thrive. His name will be mentioned many times between now and Tuesday's great race, not necessarily because of the anniversary of his 1930 success, but because he is still the benchmark for any Australasian horse with a claim to greatness.
Already some pundits are asking where brilliant mare Makybe Diva will sit in comparison to 'Big Red' should she win a record third Melbourne Cup on Tuesday. She is the best mare Australia has seen. But as far as comparisons are concerned, she will not be No.1 in the 'turf hero premiership' - and no other Australasian horse will ever take that mantle from Phar Lap.
In fact, Makybe Diva won't take the runner-up mantle off 1890 Cup winner Carbine.
That is not to denigrate her greatness, but horses had to contend with much sterner conditions - Carbine for example won two races in a day on four occasions - and horse husbandry back then was nowhere near the science it is today.
Back then horses wore forged steel shoes which almost would have been suitable for Dean Lukin to use for weight training. Today's runners are fitted with aluminum plates which are as light as grandma's sponge cake.
Giant leaps have also been made in veterinary care and nutritional supplements to keep a horse at optimum health.
Phar Lap died prematurely because of poisoning as a five-year-old but still crammed in 51 races for 37 wins and five placings. Included in his wins was an international success at Agua Caliente after contending with a harrowing overseas sea voyage, a dramatic climate change and overcoming a hoof injury.
An indication of how demanding trainer 'Hungry Harry' Telford was of Phar Lap is to compare his record with that of Makybe Diva, who has had only 35 starts as a seven-year-old for 14 wins and seven placings.
Sure, modern-day champions run faster times than Phar Lap, but times are a fallacy, in part because today's tracks are more like billiard table surfaces compared to the long grass of yesteryear. None of Carbine's nor Phar Lap's time records stand today, proving the fallacy of using the clock as a measuring stick of horses past and present.
It is also impossible to compare track conditions from one year to the next, which further compounds the time theory.
Suffice to say, Phar Lap's time of 3min27.75sec would have resulted in him beating Carbine by three lengths, even though Carbine ran a record of 3:28.25 which stood for 15 years. On the score of time, Makybe Diva would have thrashed them both by about eight seconds in 2003, or something like 45 lengths.
Apart from his racetrack deeds, which no latter-day champion has come close to emulating, Phar Lap's spirit transcended the track. No other horse will ever be the centre of the same public passion, which was abetted by the privation and despair of the Depression.
It was a time when the populace was desperately seeking heroes and, while the financial gods were cheerless, by way of compensation, the sporting gods were smiling. To provide bright spots amid the gloom they countered with the amazing trifecta of Bradman, Lindrum and Phar Lap.
Just as assuredly as Phar Lap never losing his No.1 mantle, no latter-day equine hero will ever win on each of the four days of the Flemington carnival. Phar Lap ran a total of five miles (9200m) in eight days in 1930 - the Melbourne Cup included - without being extended in any of them.
Flemington - and the rest of Australia - will erupt with Makybe mayhem if she completes the Cup treble, but when it comes to Melbourne Cup sentiment it is odds-on that it will not match the Phar Lap fervour of 1930.
Some 72,000 people paid to enter Flemington to see Phar Lap's Cup, while more than half that amount - estimated to be 40,000 - crammed on to Scotchman's Hill, a knoll overlooking the course from the other side of the Maribyrnong River. They couldn't afford to pay the admittance price, but they were not to be denied their opportunity of seeing Phar Lap become the first - and only - odds-on winner of the Cup.
With jockey Jim Pike in cruise control, Phar Lap won by three lengths, establishing a four-year-old weight-carrying record of 9st 12lb (62.5kg) which remains today.
On the score of Melbourne Cup wins, Makybe Diva is in rarefied air, shooting for a perfect and unprecedented record. Phar Lap started in three Melbourne Cups (and was favourite each time) for only one win, but he should have won two. He was an unlucky third when even-money favourite as a three-year-old after fighting with his rider Bobbie Lewis for most of the race in 1929; he won as he liked in 1930; and compounded for eighth with his record weight of 10st 10lb (68kg) the year after.
While the drama involving Phar Lap being targeted by gunmen on the Saturday before the race and his subsequent dramatic on-course arrival in 1930 has been well documented, what is not as well known is the pressure which was placed on Pike.
Former jockey Edgar Britt revealed in The Phar Lap Collection that Pike, a chronic gambler, rejected a pound stg. 10,000 offer to stop Phar Lap from winning the Melbourne Cup - enough for him to buy a home in either Toorak or Point Piper and set him up for life.
Pike said he "didn't give a damn" about the money; he only wanted to win the Cup on Phar Lap.
Even Phar Lap's beloved strapper Tommy Woodcock was offered a pound stg. 4000 bribe to give his companion a "go slow" on the eve of the race, but, like Pike, he would have nothing to do with anything which could harm Phar Lap.
The race result was what everyone expected with Pike sitting easily on the horse over the final stages after going to the lead at the top of the straight.
A scribe of the day wrote: "When the assembled thousands realised that Phar Lap had the race won Flemington 'went mad'. Phar Lap ran over the last furlong with consummate ease, and no Melbourne Cup would have been won in more stylish or more effortless manner."
So if Makybe Diva is successful in her remarkable Cup effort on Tuesday - and, predictably, already they are suggesting she will start the shortest price favourite since Phar Lap - take in the hyperbole. Then try to imagine what it was like 75 years ago when an even bigger hero was blitzing the turf.
.
