Fed: Victoria bids to reunite Phar Lap

AAP General News (Australia)
04-05-2010
Fed: Victoria bids to reunite Phar Lap

By Greg Roberts and Melissa Jenkins

MELBOURNE, April 5 AAP - Phar Lap's enormous heart powered him to many victories but
78 years after the champion racehorse's death it probably could not handle a trip from
Canberra to Melbourne.

The National Museum of Australia looks unlikely to agree to Victorian Racing Minister
Rob Hulls' request to reunite Phar Lap's heart and skeleton with his hide at the Melbourne
Museum to mark the 150th Melbourne Cup this year.

The Canberra museum has his heart - weighing 6.2kg, compared with a normal horse's
heart at 3.2kg - and the Museum of New Zealand has his skeleton.

"What was proposed by the racing minister was a noble sentiment, to bring those things
together," National Museum spokesman Dennis Grant told AAP.

"It would be very difficult for us to do it ... it will probably never leave here."

A similar request from New Zealand - where Phar Lap was born - to coincide with a turf
club's centenary was refused in 2006.

Experts including forensic pathologists found the heart was too fragile to be moved
due to the vibrations associated with travelling.

"The very strong view was that it should not travel at all," Mr Grant said.

"We are charged with preserving national treasures, there's no doubt this is one ...

it is the most requested object we have and we take its scientific preservation seriously."

The museum will consider the request but well-known racing identities Bart Cummings
and Lloyd Williams have opposed it.

Mr Hulls has written to the museum in Canberra and to New Zealand to ask for support
to reunite the champion's heart, skeleton and hide.

"Phar Lap is synonymous with the Melbourne Cup and I think it would be one of the greatest
tourist attractions during this year's Spring Racing Carnival to have all parts of Phar
Lap reunited," Mr Hulls said in a statement on Monday.

This year's Melbourne Cup will be the 80th anniversary of Phar Lap's victory in 1930,
when he carried 62 kilograms.

Phar Lap's stuffed body first went on display at the Melbourne Museum in 1933 after
it was prepared by a taxidermist in New York City.

His heart was donated to the then Institute of Anatomy in Canberra and his skeleton
to New Zealand's National Museum.

AAP gr/apm

KEYWORD: PHARLAP WRAP

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