Diary may hold key to the mystery of Phar Lap's death

IT HAS been several years now since The Age, in articles by Patrick Bartley, revealed that the most likely cause of the death of Australia's great racehorse Phar Lap was accidental arsenic poisoning in a tonic administered by his devoted handler Tommy Woodcock.The theory was hotly disputed and pooh-poohed in other newspapers, mainly by friends of the late Tommy Woodcock rather than any real evidence to the contrary.

Now, 76 years after Phar Lap died at Menlo Park in California on April 5, 1932, the evidence to support the accidental poisoning theory has finally come to light in a diary kept by his trainer Harry Telford. A quick glance at the diary leaves no doubt that Telford was a trainer ahead of his time. Many of his treatments are still in use today, in one form or another.
Some of the staple ingredients included arsenic and strychnine, both deadly poisons if used incorrectly, as well as cocaine and caffeine, and a popular tonic of the day was Fowler's Solution, which was arsenic-based and administered to Phar Lap throughout his racing career.
Fowler's Solution was a great pick-me-up and horses taking it invariably looked pictures of health. The arsenic, however, took a long time to leave the body and constant or over-use produced a build-up of the poison in the system that could be deadly.
For all his loveable qualities, Woodcock was a very unworldly young man in his early 20s when he accompanied Phar Lap to the US and then to Mexico early in 1932.
It took Phar Lap three weeks as deck cargo on a freighter, without the benefit of stabilisers, pitching and tossing across the Pacific. In such conditions, it is reasonable to assume that Phar Lap may have gone off his feed from time to time and that Woodcock supplemented his diet with Fowler's Solution or some of Telford's other preparations, unaware that the horse was building up dangerous levels of arsenic.
Telford, who had a brother who was a chemist — hence his knowledge of such things — was also in dispute with owner Dick Davis at the time and remained in Australia, so there is no mention in the diary of what he might have recommended for Phar Lap on the trip to the US.
What we do know is that Phar Lap made a brilliant recovery from the arduous voyage and a cut hoof, which probably required further treatment, after he arrived in Mexico and won the Agua Caliente Handicap Handicap on March 20, 1932, at that time the richest race in the world. Two weeks later, Phar Lap died in Woodcock's arms after making a 1000-kilometre float trip back to California.
Years later, Telford gave the diary to his then track rider Ernie Fellows, who later became a celebrated trainer in France.
The diary was passed down to Fellows' son John, who also was a successful trainer in Europe and is now living in Melbourne.
Fellows has decided to sell the diary and it will be offered for auction in Melbourne on April 23.