Phar Lap’s death an ‘accident’

By Jim Mynard
NOTED district horseman Ken Newitt has broken a silence on years of mateship and work with the illfated champion Australian racehorse Phar Lap’s strapper Tommy Woodcock.
Following the release of a recent report saying Phar Lap died of arsenic poisoning in the United States 1932, in Mr Newitt, now 86, spoke of his mate’s version of how the horse died.
Mr Newitt, an ownertrainer who won the 1978 Cranbourne Cup with Heza Natural, said he could still see the pain in the strapper’s face when he would recall the night he held the dying Phar Lap’s head in his arms.
Mr Newitt said he now wanted to tell what he knew because people still blamed the Americans for Phar Lap’s death.
“Some of us in the business know better,” he said.
“A trainer who worked with us, Vic Rail, once had Vo Rogue at Tommy’s stables and he for one would always be asking Tom what he knew about Phar Lap.
“Why would the Americans kill the horse?
“He had just won the Agua Caliente Handicap and was resting – there was no point.
“If you ask older Australians what happened to Phar Lap they would say the Yanks killed him, but they didn’t.”
Mr Newitt, now living in Pakenham, blames the stimulant nux vomica for the horse’s death and a tragic accident. Nux vomica comes from the strychnine tree and was part of a mixture, with a little arsenic, used to induce appetite in horses.
“Vic Rail always said Phar Lap’s death was a tragic accidental poisoning and that some day all would be revealed,” Mr Newitt said.
“Vic went back to his stables in Northern Australia where he lost five horses in one day from what was said to be a mysterious virus.
“They never found out what it was that killed his horses, but I sometimes wonder if they kept samples.
“If samples were kept they could be tested now with new technology.
“They were at the time still using the mixture we called nux vomica for an appetiser.
“Sometimes a horse wouldn’t eat and the mixture would be used.
“I had a filly that was down on her appetite and Tommy treated her with nux vomica because the more you could get a horse to eat, the harder you could train it to top fitness for a race.”
One book said Mr Woodcock blamed the Americans by saying the death was caused by a poison plot, but he didn’t say that privately.
One report said the strapper administered the mixture to the horse under trainer Harry Telford’s instruction.
They had a good working relationship over 15 years, but Mr Woodcock was concerned about being left alone with the horse at the time, Mr Newitt said.
“In his own words he said to me: ‘Really, the vet had gone to town and left me by meself with this very sick horse’,” he said.
“With his head in me arms he let out one mighty squeal and died.”
Mr Newitt said that after many years when Mr Woodcock recalled those moments “you could see the pain in his face.”
Mr Newitt and Mr Woodcock had neighbouring stables from 1965 to 1976.
“I was constantly in touch with him and I later helped him when he became ill,” Mr Newitt said of his friend.
“Tommy told me that it was always on his mind that the vet may have given a double dose of the medicine because of the illness. Tommy always had this theory, but it could never be quoted because he had no proof.
“I believe the horse got a double dose of the mixture for whatever reason and by whomever.”
Mr Newitt said this could have caused Phar Lap’s death because the mixture was potent and many horses died from it.
“They eventually deemed it too dangerous to use,” he said.
Mr Newitt said he rejected any suggestion that Phar Lap was ill because of bad food, because Mr Woodcock taught him how to prepare horse food.
“He was too thorough about feed for horses to be caught with that,” Mr Newitt said.
“This was three weeks after the big race and the horse would have been on light duties and Tom told of how they would go out and scythe the best cuts of grass possible for Phar Lap.”
Mr Newitt said press reports claimed Harry Telford found Phar Lap in pain that morning, but Mr Telford wasn’t there – he was back in Melbourne.
“It was Tommy who found the horse in pain,” Mr Newitt said.
“Tommy would have died before he intentionally hurt a horse, but this thing is between Tommy and that vet, whose name we do not know.
“I believe from talking with Tommy that the vet went into town to get advice on what to do, but I’ve no doubt the death gets back to that mixture and the horse got too much arsenic.”