’Big Red’s’ win a bright spot in the Depression

The horse float making its way to Flemington Racecourse on November 4, 1930, had a police escort. It was an unusual sight, but these were unusual times. The horse aboard the trailer was none other than the great New Zealand-born chestnut horse Phar Lap.

Days earlier there had been two attempts to prevent the gelding from running. The first involved a truck speeding toward Phar Lap as he was being walked along a street by his strapper Tommy Woodcock. Disaster was averted when Woodcock noticed the truck and got the horse out of the way just in time.

On the Saturday before the race, Woodcock was riding Phar Lap across Glen Huntly Rd at Caulfield when a car came tearing around the corner. Woodcock had seen the car parked there moments before and became suspicious, because its licence plate was obscured. His suspicions were confirmed when a shotgun was poked through the window from the back seat and shots were fired. It is thought gunmen had tried to aim for the horse’s legs, attempting to maim rather than kill him, but they missed. Fortunately, Woodcock had turned the horse toward a fence to protect him, giving the gunman much less of a target.

Such was the highly charged atmosphere surrounding the 1930 Melbourne Cup. Phar Lap was the favourite for the race, but there were people who would rather he didn’t run at all. While many people cheered on the seemingly unbeatable “Big Red”, others wanted to see him fail to make money by betting on his competitors.

Phar Lap had been foaled at Seadown Stud, near Timaru, on the South Island of New Zealand in 1926. Sired by English horse Night Raid, by Entreaty — two horses that never