Another Star From Phar Away

Phar Lap was to Australian racing what Man o’ War was to American. An equine Superman. He towered so far above his contemporaries, they decided to ship him to America to let the other side of the world see his brilliance.

They asked a lot of him. This was when Down Under was not an overnight flight away. It was a long, grueling sea voyage that has been known to make even seafaring men wan and ill, never mind a landlubber horse and a thoroughbred, at that, one of the planet’s most fragile creatures.

It was one of the most astonishing sports stories ever that Phar Lap could step off a gangplank and win a $100,000 race in Caliente against America’s best--in an era when it was the only hundred-grand race in existence. After all, there was no way for him to work out on shipboard for weeks.

The story of Phar Lap was so remarkable, it was made into a movie that had great success on three continents.

The Phar Lap story also had an unhappy ending. The horse was found dying in his stall under baffling circumstances, and there are die-hards in Australia to this day who still believe it was foul play, that the great Aussie colt was put down by jealous American interests.

The more likely scenario is, he was done in by his diet. He ate some poisonous oleander leaves. But his mysterious passing, together with the death in a Memphis flophouse of Australian middleweight boxing champion Dave Shade, convinced the Aussie fan-in-the-street there was a diabolic anti-Anzac conspiracy afoot.

Which makes of interest a new invasion of Aussie racing to Southern California this Saturday at Hollywood Park. A horse who is almost as wildly popular at the ovals of Melbourne and Sydney as the late, great Phar Lap, a fast, late-running bay called Rough Habit, is in America to contest the best the West has to offer in Saturday’s Hollywood Gold Cup.

Phar Lap’s Revenge? The collection of old debt? Dave Shade, we are here?

Well, not exactly. Still, the race will be watched with great interest and passion in the punting parlors from Brisbane to Perth. If Rough Habit wins, look for the Foster’s to flow late into the night in Queensland and the hoarse strains of Waltzing Matilda to drown out the night traffic.

Australia is a land known for its athletic prowess. It produces great tennis players, golfers, milers and swimmers. For a country whose population is only a little greater than that of New York City (and less than that of California), its on-field performance is little short of miraculous. And that’s leaving out cricket and football.

So, why shouldn’t its horses fit the same mold? They drink the same water, breathe the same air, eat the same crops. Bring on Man o’War. Secretariat.

John Wheeler is the trainer of the new Phar Lap, and he harbors no illusions. His horse has never raced on dirt before. He runs clockwise races as often as our counter-clockwise type. He has never smelled smog before.

But, as is his trainer, he’s a New Zealander--and New Zealand is the Kentucky of Far East racing. The Bluegrass State. Phar Lap came from there. (So did Peter Snell, the only man to win the Olympic 800 and 1,500 in the same year).

“Are we looking at another Phar Lap here?” Wheeler is asked. He refrains from laughing, but shakes his head.

“He’s a great horse, but he won’t get to be immortal. But he’ll be firing at the finish,” Wheeler promises.

He raced 56 times Down Under. He won 24. He was in the money in most of the others, often giving away as much as 21-25 pounds. He has carried as much as 138 pounds. He has won 11 stakes in his native land. Phar Lap leads the list with 17.

He races victoriously at distances from 6 furlongs to 1 1/2 miles.

Now, 56 races would be a harrowing career for an American horse and would probably be undertaken only by a gelding. Aussie horses are hardier, usually running 80-90 times.

Still, trainer Wheeler’s invasion is audacious. The venture is costing perhaps $40,000. The winner gets $412,500 in the Gold Cup. Second money is $150,000; third, $112,500; fourth, $56,250, and fifth, $18,750.

In addition to what he’s spotting them in experience, Rough Habit is going to race in a fur coat. He has his winter hair on, thanks to the flip-flop seasons (it’s coming on winter below the Equator). Wheeler is not thinking of clipping it because Rough Habit will be back in New Zealand in a few weeks and could catch his death of cold.

Rough Habit is not stepping into a conditioning race. The Gold Cup is an elite event on the American racing calendar. Some of America’s great horses have made a stab at it in its 54-year history. Seabiscuit won the first race, Native Diver was the only multiple winner and eight Kentucky Derby winners raced in it, including Citation, Affirmed, Swaps, Sunday Silence, Alysheba and Ferdinand. Some of them even won it.

Why has Wheeler embarked on this moonshot? There will be a horse who finished second in the Kentucky Derby in there this weekend--Best Pal.

He blames his jockey. Mick Dittman, Australia’s all-time leading rider, known in the irons as “The Enforcer” for his take-no-prisoners riding style, which is part-cowboy and part-Cossack. “Mick called me up and said, ‘We’ve got some time off. Why don’t we pick up and go to the States and race?’ ” Wheeler recalls. “He talked me into it.”

Why did Dittman want to take on the toughest, most competitive riding circuit in the world? Wheeler shrugs. “I dunno. He just likes playing the golf over here, I guess.”

Makes sense. If he loses the race, maybe he can get a game with Michael Jordan.