Animals: Red Effigy

When the beautiful big red animal called Phar Lap (Lightning) died last April in California, the U. S. was cheated of what probably would have been its greatest horse racing year since Man o’ War won 20 out of 21 starts in 1919 and 1920. Of the 37 races Phar Lap won, only one—the Agua Caliente Handicap last March—was away from home. But last week on Futurity Day at Belmont Park, L. I., Easterners rubbed their eyes and stared at a big red figure standing in the paddock.* It was Phar Lap. He had not returned to life, but the glossy coat was Phar Lap’s and the ridges beneath it looked precisely like the powerful muscles that had made him great. His owner, David J. Davis, had had the Phar Lap carcass reconstructed, was exhibiting it at Belmont before sending it home to Australia.

Even as a carcass Phar Lap showed why he had won so many races. He stood 16 hands, 3¾ in.; taller by 2⅛ in. than Man o’ War. His girth behind the shoulders was 81 in. against Man o’ War’s 71¾ in. Alive, Phar Lap weighed approximately 1,200 lb.; Man o’ War, 1,160 Ib. Other measurements: front leg from knee, 20 in.; hind leg from hock, 25 in.; length of neck, 36 in.; length of body 68 in.

Phar Lap was not stuffed. Jonas Brothers, New York taxidermists, used his skeleton as the armature for a sculptured clay model. From this they made a mold. Like a sculptor who transfers his clay model to bronze, they transferred theirs to a specially treated paper, hollow and light but strong. On this the skin was stretched after chemical treatment to insure the permanence of its lustre. Many a wild beast has been mounted in this manner, but Phar Lap was the first horse. Sysonby, great racehorse of 25 years ago, was stuffed, is now in Manhattan’s American Museum of Natural History.

*Phar Lap, a 7-year-old gelding, could not have run in this year’s Futurity, which is for 2-year-old colts & fillies. At 2, Phar Lap was sold for $800.