Ninetieth birthdays are usually a sedate affair, and Tuesday’s celebration for one of Melbourne’s most famous residents was no different.
First 350 people assembled in the plaza of the Melbourne museum to recreate a living portrait of his face, then he stood serenely by while a parade of small children in racing silks proffered carrot cake.
It was perhaps an on-the-nose gift, but then the protocol for celebrating the birth of a long-dead horse is hardly set.
Phar Lap didn't touch his birthday cake but fair enough. He's an elite athlete #cleaneating #Melbourne @museumvictoria pic.twitter.com/1CYBaVxTfT
— Stephanie Rhoden (@stephrhoden) October 4, 2016
And Phar Lap, his expression of calm attentiveness preserved just as it has been since New York taxidermist Louis Paul Jonas stuffed his hide following the champion racehorse’s sudden, mysterious death in 1932, did not object.
His heart and skeleton were not in attendance at the party, being held at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra and the Te Papa museum in Wellington, New Zealand, respectively.
Phar Lap would have been the same age today as Queen Liz - 90 years old. The birthday celebrations coming up on @ABCNews24 pic.twitter.com/IKVkDshtqD
— James Hancock (@jameshancockABC) October 4, 2016
It wasn’t all cake and cameras. The celebration also served as an unofficial launch of Melbourne’s spring racing carnival, which begins in earnest with the Caulfield Cup on 15 October.
The Melbourne museum chief executive, Patrick Greene, hoisted the Melbourne Cup, which Phar Lap won in 1930, from his position at the tip of the nose of the living portrait.
The New Zealand-born, Australian-trained thoroughbred holds a special place in Australian history. His transformation from warty, gangly yearling to record-breaking racehorse, coupled with an assassination attempt, captured the imagination of a city in the throes of the Depression.
The mysterious nature of his death, blamed by his strapper, Tommy Woodcock, on the nefarious actions of American criminal bookmaking gangs, is still a topic of debate. In 2000, equine veterinary specialists attributed it to acute gastroenteritis, but a 2008 analysis of the arsenic content in his mane found he had been given a large dose of arsenic 30 to 40 hours before his death. There is still no conclusive evidence as to how he died.
