Phar Lap

Phar Lap (also released as Phar Lap: Heart of a Nation) is a 1983 film about the racehorse Phar Lap. The film stars Tom Burlinson and was written by David Williamson. Plot A chestnut Thoroughbred horse called Phar Lap, known as Bobby by his strapper Tommy Woodcock (Tom Burlinson), collapses and dies in Tommy's arms at Menlo Park in California in 1932. The news is greeted with great sadness in Australia. The remainder of the film is done as flashback. Five years earlier, Phar Lap arrives in Australia, purchased for £168 sight unseen from New Zealand. His trainer Harry Telford (Martin Vaughan), along with his wife Vi (Celia De Burgh) and young son Cappy, watch as Phar Lap is lowered onto the wharf in a sling, underweight with warts all over his face. Mrs. Telford comments that she "wonders what his (Telford's) American friend (Phar Lap's owner David Davis (Leibman)) will think?" Mr. Davis is not impressed with the underweight colt, calling him a cross between a sheep dog and a kangaroo, and orders Telford to sell him immediately. Telford protests, saying that the horse's pedigree is exceptional, with Carbine "The greatest horse of them all" on both sides of his bloodlines. So Mr. Davis agrees to lease him to Telford for three years and just keep one third of the horse's winnings, though Telford must pay for Phar Lap's upkeep and keep Davis's name out of it.