RETURN OF PHAR LAP

Taranaki Daily News, 1 December 1932, Page 7

RETURN OF PHAR LAP

MARVEL OF TAXIDERMY.

EXHIBITION IN AUSTRALIA. Sydney, Nov. 25. “One case of stuffed horse”—such is the description appended to all that remains of Phar. Lap in the manifest made out- by some highly imaginative shipping clerk. It is a pathetic commentary on the irony of life. Phar Lap went away on the boat deck of the Monowai with hundreds of admirers looking on. He come back this week in the hold of the Monowai as so much cargo, with label complete. The great horse’s skeleton has already gone to New Zealand, and his heart is at Canberra. Now his body, restored to a most remarkable semblance of actual life, has been consigned by his owner, Mr. Davis, to his partner, Mr. Telford, and the “Red Terror” will probably be exhibited in the chief Australian towns before he is relegated to his, rightful place in the national museum at toe Federal capital. The restored figure was exhibited in America and excited widespread admira-tion-one writer pointing out how skil-fully.-the taxidermist had reproduced “the cock of the ears, the turn of the head, the far-away intently interested look in the eyes”—for Phar Lap, so his jockey said, -always looked round him before the start of a race as if he were surveying the whole landscape and “taking it in.” Even the hair on the legs is slightly curled, to look as if the bandages which he usually wore had just been removed. The figure actually shows the new growth of his foot after the hoof had been-cut back from the heel, in treating him for the injury sustained when he was training in Mexico. The mounting of the figure cost £lOOO, but, according to all accounts, the work had been dohe with marvellous skill and with the most lifelike effect. The huge ■‘case in which the. figure had travelled was taken to a garage in Burke Street, where it was unpacked—and Phar Lap came to life again. The few present who had known the “Red Terror” well were amazed by the impressiveness of the reproduction, and poor Woodcock, his trainer, turned away weeping bitterly, and sought refuge in the box in which his beloved “Bobby” had come back to him. The great horse’s death was indeed a tragedy not to be weighed in the balance against the gain or loss of gold.