Timaru Celebrates Phar Lap - an international racing icon
Thursday 29 October 2009, 2:43PM
By Central South Island Tourism
1092 views
Phar Lap Festival, Timaru, New Zealand: On November 25th, 2009, New Zealand’s most famous equine hero will be celebrated in appropriate style with the official unveiling of a life-sized bronze statue at Timaru’s Phar Lap Raceway.
The official unveiling of the Phar Lap statue will be the highlight of two days of celebrations, which also include a heritage parade, Black Tie Dinner, the launch of Dr Graeme Putt’s book “Phar Lap The Untold Stories”, and a full race day on November 26th including Fashion in the Field and a finale party.
A number of racing dignitaries and celebrities will attend the Festival, including the Australian High Commissioner, champion jockey and trainer Lance O’Sullivan and Ellerslie racing ambassador Bridgette O’Sullivan, “Track Talk” host and TV presenter Des Coppins and representatives from the Phar Lap Trust.
The creation of the statue by Auckland based sculptor Joanne Sullivan-Gessler has been a labour of love, first proposed in 2003 by the Phar Lap Charitable Trust, formed to ensure that the champion race horse was suitably acknowledged in the country of his birth.
The monument consists of a life-sized bronze memorial of the champion racehorse in full gallop, ridden by his regular jockey Jim Pike and demonstrating his impressive 22-foot gallop stride.
Phar Lap will gallop over a map of New Zealand with his front hoof placed squarely over Timaru, as a firm reminder of the great horse's South Canterbury heritage. The base of the statue is a water fountain which brings the statue to life with the sound of water designed to emulate galloping hoof beats.
Phar Lap – considered “Australia’s wonder horse” and nicknamed Big Red, inspired the public through the Great Depression of the 1930s, conquering the Australian racing scene with 36 wins from his last 41 starts, then winning North America’s richest race, the Agua Caliente Handicap in 1932, before dying tragically and suspiciously just two weeks later.
New Zealand’s greatest race horse was foaled in Seadown, Timaru, late in the season on 4 October 1926. The unveiling of the monument marks the beginning of a series of projects designed to put Timaru and Phar Lap Raceway on the map as the New Zealand centre commemorating the kiwi-bred winner.
The two days of Phar Lap celebrations coincide with other early summer events in the Timaru region. The annual Timaru Festival of Roses runs from 20 – 29 November, and includes the New Zealand Hat and Hair Art Awards on November 21st – making for 10 days of entertaining events. This year for the first time, the three events will be promoted jointly under the “Hurly-Burly” umbrella, something that Central South Island Tourism manager Katerina Tiscenko hopes to build on in the future. For more information about the events and accommodation bookings, visit www.hurlyburly.co.nz
For further information about Phar Lap and the monument, visit:
http://www.pharlap.org.nz
http://museumvictoria.com.au/
http://www.sullivansculpture.
Other Hurly Burly event sites: