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Treborlang
Australia
Roddy The Rooster & Friends
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Robert Treborlang Australia |
Roddy The Rooster & Friends |
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1929-1931 - Phar Lap: The PhactsBy Night Raid out of Entreaty,His colour was sort of bay, He was bought by Harry Telford Who had hoped to make him pay. His first four starts - disastrous As were also his next three, And not till a race at Warwick Farm Did he invite scrutiny. Favourite at Rosehill Racecourse There he won his first, At Randwick chopped all his opponents Into tiny liverwurst. Won the Craven Plate by four lengths Like no other quadruped, While in the VRC Derby He just left the field for dead. With four wins under his mane, And tipped for the Melbourne Cup, He got saddled at seven stone six But just couldn't get it up. There followed a spate of losses, As well the St George Stakes, But then in the Autumn season He finally broke the hex. With eight straight wins in three cities Phar Lap lay them in the aisles, And set an Australian record For two and a quarter miles. His jockey was Jimmy Pike, Who seldom intervened, And left tactical decisions To the bay-hued 'wunderkind.' Big Red was now a champion, A Tall Poppy, so to speak. On Derby Day at Flemington He even got shot at in the street. Tommy Woodcock, his brave strapper, Jammed him against a fence, Screened him with his body and saved him From racing's malcontents. It was now time for the greatest race, First Tuesday in November, Phar Lap, the small punter's bastion, Hero of every non-member, Had his odds reduced by bookies To a slim eleven to eight, The shortest priced race favourite In the Cup's distinguished slate. When the day at long last arrived, To Aussie days the mother, The seventieth Melbourne Cup, An instant like no other. Eighty thousand in attendance Saw the great Phar Lap perform, Pass Second Wind then Shadow King And amble easily home. But still it was not quite enough For on that very day The great bay tore around twice more For his triumphal say. It was all part of fourteen wins' Uninterrupted breeze, But then, let's face it, Phar Lap's name Means 'Lightning' in Sinhalese. The horse was now at the apex Of his maturity, And raced the greatest of his life In the famed Futurity. Ten stone three, the weight he carried, But awesome his technique, For still he won in a wondrous burst By a neck from Mystic Peak. But dark forces in the background Conspired against Phar Lap, For the 'tallest poppy' of all time Was the subject of much clap-trap, Men criminal and respected, But specially men hard-boiled, Saw the gelding as a hiccup In the running of games well-oiled. The grand Victorian Racing Club Introduced a special fix, So that for the C. M. Lloyd Stakes Phar Lap bore a ton of bricks. And though he lost that unfair race, He fought like billyo, And still he beat them, still he won The next six in a row. But he kindled hatred and jealousy In direct ratio with his size, The Melbourne Cup of thirty-one Proved the start of his demise. Ten stone ten pounds handicapped His load was a disgrace, And Jimmy Pike just pulled him back, Let him chug into eighth place. It was clear he'd never be allowed To prevail in Oz again, And so his owners devised a plan To maximise their gain. Greed thus ate even deeper Into the fate of the great bay, For his masters shipped him off next To Agua Calient-ay. 'The Red Terror from Down Under' Set records in New Mexico And left amazed all those who watched And wondered just what makes-him-go. The Yankees cheered ten furlong's worth They loved his loping stride, And Phar Lap made Australia proud, Young Woodcock by his side. How imposing was his splendour, All the Yanks watched him aghast, How lucky they were to see the race For it was his very last. Munching weeds at Menco Park, Two weeks later, on April five, After a brief sweat and tremor Phar Lap was no more alive. How did it pass? How could it be? Was it fortune? Was it caused? A monster fifteen pounder Was all his chest disclosed. A great heart and a good physique That fought to the last crumb, His spirit is in the people, The rest in a museum.
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Robert Treborlang Australia |
Roddy The Rooster & Friends |
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