Why was Phar Laps death significant?
People were incredibly interested in Phar Lap’s career. He was a symbol of hope and success in a difficult time. He was an ordinary person’s horse who nevertheless was one of the greatest racehorses in history. He could win the top races and do it almost effortlessly. However, gangsters at the time were losing money because of the horse… the mobsters wanted to make money but Phar Lap always won, so they tried to kill him. In one attempt on his life, gangsters shot at him from a passing car (they missed). Phar Lap boarded a ship for the US. He stopped in Tijuana for a race at Agua Caliente before continuing to his new barn in California. Unfortunately it would be his last race. At his new barn, the horse died. Everyone believed that he was poisoned. A recent study found an overdose of arsenic in his system which could either have been the result of a single overdose given to kill the horse or the result of many small doses that soaked into his system overtime since arsenic had many co
