GUARDING PHAR LAP

Hokitika Guardian, 19 November 1930, Page 8

GUARDING PHAR LAP

ATTEMPTS TO MAIM HORSE

SYDNEY, November 7

This year’s Melbourne Cup, won by Phar Lap, proved one of the most sensational of them all. because of the deliberate attempts that were made to “get at” the favourite by a desperate gang in Afelhourne.

Incidents aliout which one expects to hear only m the most thrilling fiction stories of the turf occurred in Alolbourne this year, while the efforts' of the trainer to guard his charge from harm were equally as thrilling. When Phar Lap first went to Alelbourne, a few days after the Caulfield Cup, his lessee-trainer, Mr H. R. Telford, took the usual precaution to guard his charge during the night, hut it was not until two deliberate attempts to maim or injure the horse had been made that he realised that there was a determined gang at work, intent, on stopping the champion going to the post.

Last Saturday morning, four days before the race’, while Phar Lap was walking through the streets of Fitzroy, a shot was fired at it from a car standing at the kerb. AVhetber it was fired with the intention of hitting horse or whether it was thought that the unusual sound would stampede the horse into bolting and injuring himself. is not known*, but detectives have found traces of the pellets from the shot embedded in the walls of buildings in the vicinity. Luckily none took effect.

Following this occurrence Telford adopted a clever ruse to outwit the “maiming gang.” He borrowed a horse from another trainer, and substituted it for Phar Lap. The borrowed horse was the same colour, size and build as the champion, and it would have taken a shrewd judge to tell them apart. From Sunday until Tuesday at 2 p.m., this understudy to the champion appeared on the tracks, was guarded by the police and went through the same programme as if it had been Phar Lap. Meanwhile the champion was taken secretly to the St. Alban’s Stud, at Geelong, and there, still closely guarded, be completed his Cup preparation. Then by motor float be was brought to the course, and not until after the race did Telford reveal that deception.

That the precautions he had taken were not in vain was shown by an incident which occurred on Monday night at the stables where the pseudo “Phar Lap” was quartered. Soon after 9 p.m. all the lights and the telenhone failed, and for an hour and a half the stables were in darkness. But the vigilance of the guards in the horse-stalls was not relaxed, and nothing occurred. AVhen electricians examined the light cables and the telephone connections they discovered that a short circuit had occurred.

There was little doubt in the minds of the stable watchers that interested persons hoied to y: fit ■)' liifc >' ■>"- sequent confusion and carry out some unlawful deed. i

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