Phar Lap poisoned with arsenic confirmed

arganaut · Postby **arganaut** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 2:17 pm

Front page headlines of the Sydney newspaper today reads -

OFFICIAL: OUR GREATEST HORSE WAS POISONED

PHAR LAP DEATH MYSTERY SOLVED

...The Daily Telegraph can reveal that secret scientific tests using breakthrough technology have uncovered evidence the legendary racehorse was poisoned with arsenic just hours before his 1932 death in the US.

The story goes on and covers several pages.

The breakthrough technology is a "US synchroton or particle accelerator" which has been used on some of Phar Lap's hair.

Best described as a giant microscope, a synchroton is a machine about the size of a soccer field.

The study began in February when a 2mm square sample was cut from beneath Phar Lap's mane. A whole hair was then removed from the sample hide and analysed at a synchroton outside Chicago in June last year and June this year. The tests revealed a high concentration of arsenic.

The report says "The arsenic in the hair structure is consistent with....a single large dose of arsenic."

The scientists have estimated from the results found Phar Lap was poisoned 35 hours before he died.

The same technology was used in 2000 on six strands of hair of Beethoven's which identified his illness and death due to lead poisioning.

To read more on this go to -
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/s ... 21,00.html
________

wilf · Postby **wilf** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 3:48 pm

If you read Tommy Woodcocks lifestory he mentions some shady characters hangng around the barn at Menlo Park in California. I knew him very late in life when he had a great stayer called Reckless who was the only horse that ever wore Phar Laps blanket and he was an advisor to the production crew of the film of the great horses life. A great story and a wonderful movie.

PHAR LAP · Postby **PHAR LAP** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:09 pm

No surprise to someone who loves this horse, seeing he is related to a horse of mine. I just watched the movie again last week with a friend, she will be glad to know the timing of the news.

People are so mean to hurt such a beautiful animal who gave his all. All in the name of GREED!

:evil:

Shammy Davis · Postby **Shammy Davis** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:10 pm

Now that the evidence is in, it's still is a sad revelation on the industry. I agree with Wilf, it's a wonderful story and I enjoyed the movie though I'd love to have seen PHARLAP retire to the AUS Horse Park (if they had or have one) rather than die at the hand of some evil perpetrator. Don't guess we'll ever know who the killer was. Geez, even then it was just a sport. The destiny of the world didn't depend on it.

Mahubah · Postby **Mahubah** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:16 pm

Well, if the scientists' reports tell the true tale, it wouldn't have been the first time someone tried for him -- there were reports that he had been shot at while still in Australia. Guess thugs are thugs wherever they're found.

MT Horses · Postby **MT Horses** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:11 pm

I agree with you all that it is a GREAT Movie
and I will have to try to find Tommy Woodcocks lifestory
I think it would be a very neat book to read
I am also very glad that finally Pharlap's Murder
has been uncovered for all the world to see
and it was such a tragic end to a great horse

magic code · Postby **magic code** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:55 pm

The article says he was "poisoned with arsenic" but it doesn't say if it was done intentionally. Couldn't it have come from the stuff that was sprayed on the fields adjacent to his paddock?

summerhorse · Postby **summerhorse** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 9:23 pm

That was the original theory all along.

Heidilady · Postby **Heidilady** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 2:45 am

magic code wrote:The article says he was "poisoned with arsenic" but it doesn't say if it was done intentionally. Couldn't it have come from the stuff that was sprayed on the fields adjacent to his paddock?

I suppose the argument would be the volumn it would've taken from that method. It seems awfully specific so I'm inclined to go with these findings but something still seems weird to me. Am I the only one thinking this feels strange? I still wonder about the infection they hypothesized about.

All I know is, if I'd seen someone lurking I'd sleep in the horse's stall if it came to that. Might be a bit of an interesting bunking situation.

hpkingjr · Postby **hpkingjr** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 4:29 am

I am somewhat perplexed because in an acute poisoning the hair usually doesn't have enough time to grow and uptake enough poison to use hair analysis as a method. Hair analysis is usually reserved for chronic poisoning. Does anyone know more specifics on this method of analysis?
I find it very nteresting that it could detect an acute case of arsenic.

Seems like when women have been convicted of poisoning their husbands with arsenic, it took them some time to pull the stunt off.

Jean · Postby **Jean** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 5:50 am

Isn't Arsenic rat poison?

madelyn · Postby **madelyn** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 6:43 am

Back in those days, there were race trainers who used a bit of arsenic along with other magical ingredients in their horse "tonics" to make their horses run better. I believe arsenic, like cigueroa, is cumulative and can build up in one's system.. so it is possible Phar Lap was poisoned by one too many "tonics." In this case, it WOULD show up in the hair sample.

I know I had to give up eating reef fish about ten years ago because of cigueroa.

summerhorse · Postby **summerhorse** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 6:50 am

madelyn wrote:Back in those days, there were race trainers who used a bit of arsenic along with other magical ingredients in their horse "tonics" to make their horses run better. I believe arsenic, like cigueroa, is cumulative and can build up in one's system.. so it is possible Phar Lap was poisoned by one too many "tonics." In this case, it WOULD show up in the hair sample.

I know I had to give up eating reef fish about ten years ago because of cigueroa.

Yeah excellent points above and here. I do wonder at that much arsenic being able to show up that fast in the hair growth but I guess it is possible as it was barely above the root. They had the horse grazing out by fields that had (unknown to them) been heavily sprayed with some pesticide (now whether it contained arsenic I have no idea). Could also have been an accidental poisoning with some rat poison getting dropped in his feed but I find that probably unlikely considering how careful they were with his feed and well everything.

But arsenic WAS a common tonic to put "bloom" on a horses coat (use too much though and all the hair falls out later!) so again it could simply have been an accident that he got too much and in his stressed state was not able to cope.

If anyone "got at" the horse it would have to have been an inside job, they had pretty tight security as I recall from reading accounts. I don't think that horse was left alone for any time esp. after prior attempts were made on his life.

I would find this more conclusive if the preserving solution had not also contained arsenic. While this is interesting I would like to see it confirmed by more than one lab.

Tucumcari · Postby **Tucumcari** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 10:24 am

Arsenic is one of the ingredients in a b vitamin that we mix in a jug after a horse ships. We rehydrate with the jug and add a few other goodies to help with the stresses of the ship. The arsenic does help stimulate appetite which is a benefit when shipping a fussy horse or any horse for that matter. However one vet did tell me that arsenic doesn't exit the body readily. So if it was evident in hair follicles, it was perhaps something that was given with some regularity for quite some time (if he was a bad eater or fussy after a ship, and the ship to America might have been more stressful then than it is now), without the knowledge that the horse's body sort of retains or stores it for some time, and the build up over time would infact cause toxicity and possible death.
Interesting, though.
Does anyone know what the "stuffing" process involves and what kind of chemicles might be utilized?

Mahubah · Postby **Mahubah** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 5:31 pm

Just as a sidelight, there was an interesting case in the forensic literature a while back. As the investigators put it together, a family had been busy trying to murder their sickly old auntie and chose arsenic poisoning as the means. To their surprise, though, the more they gave her, the better and stronger she looked. They finally gave up and shot her.

What the detectives found out in investigating the murder was that the aunt had been a rare individual with a genetic inability to process arsenic properly (the human body actually needs tiny trace amounts) and had to take arsenic supplements to stay alive. Ironically, before her loving family started trying to poison her, the old lady had become despondent and decided to commit suicide by quitting her arsenic supplements...so her family was actually keeping her alive, at least until they got impatient and decided to use more direct means than poisoning. Truth is indeed stranger than fiction.