A SICK HORSE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 203, 20 April 1932, Page 6

A SICK HORSE

PHAR LAP ILL WHEN HE WON AT AGUA CALIENTE A NEW DISCLOSURE A message from San Francisco reports a sensational diselosure when the body of the "wonder horse," Phar Lap, underwent a post mortem ^xamination. Although the autopsy resulted in the discovery, in the horse's organs, of a poison f requently use > as a tree ■spray, a far more. unexpected distov- ( ery was made. It was found that Phar Lap's stomach was coated with well established ulqers clearly indieating that the "Red Terror" had the ulcers in his stomach when he arrived in America from Wellington, and he was a decidedly siclc horse when he created a world-wide sensation by winning the Agua Caliente Handicap. The scientists and veterinarians who have exhaustively examined the organs of the dead horse agree that the arsenic in the tree spray swallowed by Phar Lap was insufficient to cause death by poisoning if the animal's stomach had been normal, but the poisonous effect of the arsenic had been greatly aggravated by the ulcers so that fatal results would be expected. This latest diselosure has created a wave of symuathy throughout the American sporting world for the gallant Phar Lap. Little did anyone suspect on the day on which he thrilled the cheering crowds with his dazzling victory in the Agua Caliente Handicap that he was actually a siek horse. Despite this terrible handicap the "Red Terror" not only won the race, but broke the record time for the event. One sporting writar states: "A heroic galloper has passed away, but his memory will linger long with us. Phar Lap earried a heavier weight than any of us knew. He was a siclc horse, and yet he showed them the wav home with a longsustain^d dash that made some of the best horses loolc like mules. Sports men of the United States share the sorrow of the brotherhood in Australia and New Zealand."