“The
tragedy in a man’s life is what dies inside of him while he lives.” ― Albert Schweitzer
Life after Phar Lap for Harry Telford? In a word – shithouse. For the next 30
years, Telford wandered a barren landscape. Doomed to live a nightmare, as if perpetually
cursed and haunted by some Shakespearean spectre of ill fortune. The death of Phar Lap took a terrible toll on him
beyond losing one of the greatest racehorses of all time. Financially, Phar Lap’s death dealt Harry Telford a
blow from which he would never recover. Beyond the stake money and potential
sale value now lost, Phar Lap’s £8,000[1]
insurance policy was never kept up by Telford or Davis when their horse went to
America.
When it became certain Phar Lap would be heading overseas, Harry
Telford was compelled to review the insurance only to discover coverage did not
extend outside of Australia. This also meant in transit. He called in legendary
VRC vet S.O. Wood to inspect Phar Lap
and assess if his horse was safe to travel. Tommy Woodcock warned Sam Wood he
needed to be in the stable with him as “Bobby” did not like being with
strangers. Wood condescendingly reminded him that he had attended to Phar Lap before and they were not
strangers. A few minutes later Wood yelled out for assistance as Phar Lap pinned into the corner of his
stall. Yet amazingly, even after having his champion inspected, Telford still
failed to insure him for America. Now whether or not he and Davis were having
another moment of non-communication in their often fractious partnership, the
resultant nonaction would prove disastrous. In what seems extraordinarily lax
practice, in this case by Harry Telford, Phar
Lap left Australia not covered for his ocean trip or New Zealand. Unfortunately,
worse was to come.
Phar
Lap’s death would prove a very expensive
loss. Not only had Harry Telford failed taking out transit insurance or
coverage in New Zealand, even more unbelievable, businessman David Davis failed
to take out coverage on Phar Lap for
America. Despite repeated warnings, death threats, stress from an ocean voyage,
the very real risk of being fatally injured racing or killed in transit, neither
Telford nor Davis ensured their horse was adequately covered: This legendary
horse died uninsured.[2]
Unsurprisingly, Telford was furious with Davis as much as he was heartbroken. Yet,
while the blame was being heaped upon David Davis, in fairness Harry Telford
should have been equally livid with himself. For both men the pecuniary loss of
Phar Lap was enormous. For Telford,
who was constantly struggling with funds, the death of Phar Lap proved financially devastating.[3]
The absence of insurance is even more difficult to understand when knowing
Davis had just been lining up $5,000 a pop appearance money from dozens of US
Jockey Clubs. Along with this windfall is a Hollywood contract for $100,000 so Phar Lap could appear in the movies.[4]
And just to hammer home how much value the Americans placed on Phar Lap, it was later revealed Davis
turned down an offer of $300,000 to sell him.[5]
Or in Australian currency at the time, £60,000. An extraordinary offer for a gelding.
Harry Telford was accustomed to bad
luck. For as long as he could remember, ill fortune rode ahead of his every
move. Like most from an impoverished background who suddenly strike it rich,
there was certainly no desire to be returning to the poor house. However, the
moment Phar Lap died, a cold stab of
reality chilled Telford to the core. He could see the nightmare of struggle and
paucity repeating. A renegotiated lease with David Davis meant his stake winnings
on Phar Lap were already reduced from
two-thirds to a half with the costs of Braeside spiraling out of control. This
mounting pressure made him even more distant from everyone including his wife.
Then adding more sadness to his domestic situation came the death of Elvira’s beloved
mother. In the state of mind he was in, Telford possibly lent his spouse less emotional
support than their pet dog. Then worse was to come for the Telfords. Any
ephemeral joy brought about by the birth of their daughter Louise rapidly
vanished into a nightmare as their sickly child died only a couple of months
after her birth.[6]
Married to a trainer is not an easy
gig at the best of times. Married to one whose lack of communication and
affection became ever more remote after these tragedies, lay the seeds to their
marriage crumbling away completely a few years later. Even before Phar Lap travelled to America, Telford’s
life was starting to unravel. What happened to his daughter, what was happening
at Braeside and then Phar Lap dying
suddenly in America was beyond his worst imaginings. When the news broke, it
created a scene of utter awfulness. Harry Telford returned home to Braeside
with a reporter waiting, breaking the news of Phar Lap’s death. Having not heard from either David Davis or Tommy
Woodcock, Telford thought, or hoped, at first, it may have been some horrible
hoax. “I only have your word, I have
heard nothing from America.” As soon as Telford did hear, he instructed
Davis to bring home the horse’s heart, hide and skeleton. The Victoria Museum
stepped in quickly to commission the horses’ remains for taxidermy. The
Wellington Museum then requested Phar Lap’s
skeleton. Phar Lap’s heart ended up
in the National Museum, Canberra. All the other remains being buried at the
farm with the Perry’s providing an expensive monument.[7]
After Phar Lap died in America, so too did the career of Harry Telford, just
as many in the racing game privately predicted. His grandiose plan of running a
successful racing and breeding complex out at Braeside quickly collapsed without
the necessary cash injections provided by Phar
Lap. Taking into account inflation, never mind purchasing power and any
side bets, Phar Lap’s earnings in
that three-year period were in modern value close to $20,000,000 or more. His
potential earnings, which Telford had been banking on, failed to materialise.
Turn that tap off, little wonder Harry Telford felt bereft of funds. However,
his Braeside farm, which Telford was leasing from the Melbourne and
Metropolitan Board of Works for £800 per annum, should have been more
successful than what it ended up. Unfortunately, for all his efforts, Telford
proved he was neither an expert trainer nor any claims as a bloodstock
specialist. On top of everything else, he showed himself to be a very ordinary
businessman. After Phar Lap’s success
and the common knowledge of him having picked his champion out of a yearling sales
catalogue, with no more insight than his supposedly deep understanding of bloodlines,
Telford opened up to the press,
My
father having been a trainer, I was reared among horses. From early boyhood
pedigrees interested me. I have studied thousands and thousands of them. When
the catalogue of the sale at which Phar Lap was offered reached me, I ran
through it in the usual way. Phar Lap’s breeding caught my eye. The more I went
into it the stronger grew my belief that here was a perfectly bred animal –
just the sort of horse I had been hoping to train. I spent more than a month
sitting up night after night, studying Phat Lap’s pedigree. I was sure I found
a winner. But I was afraid to say too much in case someone else might get in
before me. I knew that Mr. Davis was a buyer of horses so I suggested that he
buy the youngster. Mr. Davis said he had enough horses already. When I
explained the exceptional breeding of this one, he asked me what he was like in
the legs. He wasn’t at all keen and for a long time I could not get him to make
up his mind.” [8]
Maybe this is true because if it
was, it is very likely the only time it was. Apart from Rondalina, coming second to Phar
Lap a couple of times, Petit Fil
and Aurania winning some Group 3 and
minor races, there is not one other bloodstock purchase or breeding attributed
to Telford that comes within a country mile of a decent horse, never mind another Phar
Lap. In August 1935. Andrew Robertson paid out 400 guineas for Rondalina at Harry Telford’s dispersal
sale run at the Showgrounds through Powers, Rutherford.[9]
Telford bought Rondalina as a
yearling in 1930 for 160 guineas. Even Rondalina’s
purchase by Telford in the first place is very closely linked to Robertson.
Having imported the stallion Don Reynaldo,
sired by St. Frusquin[10]
(St. Simon line) out of Donnetta by Donovan for Allen and George Tye’s Allendale Stock Farm in 1913,[11]
Andrew Robertson and the Tye brothers sold Don
Reynaldo to Frank Reynolds of Tocal Stud in the lower Hunter Valley where
he bred Donna Caroline.[12] The
maternal side of the bloodline is saturated with St. Simon and more particularly Galopin
strains. Strong as an ox, the 16 hands bay stallion Don Reynaldo foaled in 1906 had been bred by Edgar Vincent.[13]
Walter Mitchell passed away in
September 1917 and his Towong Hill property in the Upper Murray was kept going
by his brother John and the Perpetual Trustee Company. In 1926 politician and
pastoralist Norman Falkiner sold his imported stallion Beau Fils to Towong Hill stud. April 1930, Mitchell’s estate sold
two Beau Fils sired fillies through
Chisholm & Co to Telford: All Frills
(140 guineas) from Trafalgar sired Falcast and Rondalina (160 guineas) from Don
Reynaldo sired Donna Caroline.
These purchases being by Telford were very likely done on Andrew Robertson’s
recommendation. Later on, Telford also purchased Rondalina’s younger brother Petit
Fils and won a few minor races with him. Donna Caroline died in 1933.
Andrew Robertson’s Rondalina was the second highest price paid at Telford’s 1935 dispersal.[14]
Unfortunately, the sale also displays many aspects of Telford’s woeful
management. While purchasing Rondalina,
Robertson also purchased St Anton sired
mare Love Nest for 170 guineas and Ra.[15]
Telford purchased the Eudorus sired Ra, having been served by The Night Patrol, only four months
previous from Gerald Buckley’s[16]
Rock House Stud dispersal at Kyneton for 210 guineas[17]
and sold her for only 50 guineas to Robertson.[18]
It was yet
another example of the Robertson brothers assisting Telford. And
considering Rondalina was leased back
to Telford by Andrew Robertson who then suggested she be matched with his
imported sire Manitoba, at that stage
doing stud duties at Alexander Creswick’s The Nook. This resulted in Aurania, in truth, being bred by Andrew Robertson. The colt gave Telford
a Group 3 Maribyrnong Plate and one of his rare victories after Phar Lap’s death.
Telford then, despite an acrimonious situation developing at the Nook between Andrew Robertson and
Sam Wood over Manitoba, after the
deaths of Wood and Alexander Creswick and with Dorothy Wood in the throes of a
dispersal sale, matched Rondalina
with Manitoba a second time on
Robertson’s recommendation. This resulted in Delina. The breeding of Delina
is almost a snapshot of Harry Telford. She was very likely the best horse he
owned after Phar Lap and had the
potential of providing some lucrative wins. By the time Delina appeared, Telford was so heavily in debt there was no way to
keep her. Andrew Robertson organised a private sale of the filly to his brother
Lou Robertson’s patron, Alf Griffiths for 1500 guineas. She became a lucrative
horse for Griffiths in stakes and betting plunges.
Andrew Robertson also organised for Rondalina to be served by St Magnus, which he imported for Aspro
creator, George Nicholas. Robertson also imported Nicholas’ three foundation
mares for Shirley Stud out at Macedon including Wireaway, dam of Morse Code and
Asphodel, dam to 1944 VRC Derby
winner San Martin. Rondalina foaled the filly Fates Degree, that was sold to George
Nicholas’ Managing Director Eric Stennett at Aston Lodge, Dandenong. When Fates Decree was matched with another close
Robertson connection, breeder Les Aldridge’s[19]
imported stallion Empyrean, they
produced Pure Fire. The colt was sold
to the Robertson brother’s lifelong friend, businessman John Wren. Pure Fire, winner of both the AJC and
VRC Sire Produce Stakes was at one stage looking like a genuine Derby and
Melbourne Cup chance.
You do have to wonder what Harry Telford
was doing at Braeside? As important as Phar
Lap may have been to the cash flow, the operation managed by Telford,
should have been far more successful. He personally selected and purchased
yearlings from sales in Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand where he spent money
like a drunken sailor. His spending being commented upon by the press even by
May 1930 when he coughed up another 6,730 guineas on 22 yearlings adding to his
already large, unproductive team at Braeside.[20] His lack of return on funds does tell a
tale. Some of Telford's yearlings had been purchased for A.C.I. industrialist Bill “Knockout”
Smith for his Hunter Valley stud, St Albans but most were headed for Braeside,
adding significantly to Telford’s already large, unpayable debt. Very few of
his purchases were even paying the feed bill while his breeding program
continued not producing winners.
Owners around Australia displayed little
confidence in Harry Telford and probably for good reason. Besides Phar Lap, Telford’s training and
breeding record is a wasteland. The fact that the trainer of the greatest
racehorse in Australian Turf history could not attract wealthy owners, with the
short-term exception of Sydney-based Bill Smith and Frank (F.P.) Cruttenden
running their horses under the nom de course, “Mr. F Smithden”.[21] This lack of support screams volumes
of how the racing community viewed Telford’s training and bloodstock skills.
Even when Phar Lap was all-conquering, Telford had very few of his other horses, other than “Mr.
Smithden’s” Chief Ruler sired filly La Justice and Telford’s own Rondalina anywhere near the winner’s
circle. Rondalina came second to Phar Lap in both the 1931 VATC Underwood
Stakes and Memsie Stakes.[22]
We can use all the platitudes on Harry
Telford such as it being “…better to have
tried and failed than never to have tried at all.” All the trainers at some
time or another during their career trained their own horses. Rarely is such a
path taken at the expense of not training for wealthy patrons. Telford should be
given kudos for at least trying to create his own establishment with just his
own horses. But unlike a public trainer with a dud horse, where that
underperforming horse can be returned to a disappointed owner, Telford was left
holding some very expensive babies. And there were many of them. On top of his
breeding program never rising above disastrous, Telford sold very few of his
horses at yearling sales until he was forced into a dispersal sale. After Phar Lap’s death, Telford’s debts
accelerated to a point where he was quickly left with little choice but to sell
or go to prison. If he could have trained his horses from inside the clink, he may
have held out a little longer. There is a genuine sadness woven throughout the
Telford tale as life disintegrated before his eyes.
It was not simply the crushing debt that
finished Telford’s dreams of running a successful stud with the own horses.
Often accredited to Winston Churchill, “Success
is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” Prior to Phar Lap, that statement epitomises
Harry Telford. In truth, Telford’s spirit had been mortally wounded by the
death of Phar Lap. And not
necessarily from having no more winnings or being able to collect on what
should have been an enormous insurance payout. It was that previous ability of Telford to
stumble from one failure to the next without any loss of enthusiasm and
optimism. Prior to Phar Lap, Telford
always believed a champion would arrive. It may have taken nearly thirty years
to finish him off but from 1932 to the day he died, Harry Telford was a very
different and broken man.
Lou Robertson went around to visit
his friend at his neighbouring Braeside property when it seemed inevitable
Telford would have to walk away from it. He caught him sitting despondently on
his front porch steps staring out into the middle distance. Robertson asked
what he was thinking. Telford replied forlornly, “Just wondering who I don’t owe five quid to?”[23]
Lou Robertson remained one of Harry’s closest friends and would help him with
veterinary work when he could not afford a vet. At times through this bleak
period, Robertson would give his friend employment. Telford assisted him in the
training of winners Ken Luke’s Fine
Fettle and Alf Griffiths’ Leonatus.
Silver Hawk won the Balwyn Handicap in
1953[24]
for Telford, some fifteen years after Aurania
won the Maribyrnong Plate. It had been such a long drought, Harry Telford was
forced to admit, he could not remember the name of his last winner, “It was a Manitoba mare at Williamstown
before the war.”[25] In
fact, it was a colt.
It is always portrayed that there
was a falling out between Harry Telford and Tommy Woodcock which is untrue.
After Woodcock returned from America, while waiting to have their house built
in Mentone, Tommy and Emma Woodcock stayed with the Telfords at Braeside. Tommy
Woodcock spilled a giant bucket of veiled and not so veiled criticism of his
ex-boss but they never fell out. Telford may have been a hard and inflexible
trainer but among his circle of friends, he was a very well liked and respected
man. He was also very loyal. Possibly more than you could say about Tommy
Woodcock as he never missed an opportunity to disparage Telford’s harsh and
inflexible training abilities.
When Lou Robertson was driving out
to the races in his big Oldsmobile, he would often pick up Jack Holt and Harry
Telford; none of the trio were in particularly good health. On one occasion
Robertson was roaring into the Moonee Valley car park in his usual erratic
fashion while completely ignoring directions from an exacerbated traffic
cop. The policeman came storming over to
his car, blowing a whistle, shouting, “Hey,
hey, hey...” and suddenly realised who was driving, “Oh Mr. Robertson, you need to be a bit more careful when you’re
driving.” “Sorry Constable, I was
distracted for a moment talking with Mr. Holt and Harry Telford here.” The
policeman peered in at these men and figured while he had the three famous
trainers there he may as well try his luck. “Well,
just be careful driving like that, you’ve gone against the traffic. I’ll let
you off this time. Mr. Robertson, I am only a two bob punter, you couldn’t help
me with one today?” Robertson quickly replied, “I fancy number four in the fifth race.” The police officer looked at
Holt and Telford, dutifully giving knowledgeable nods of agreement. “Oh thank you Mr. Robertson, gentlemen and
if you could just slow it down a little.” As they pulled away, Jack Holt
turned to Lou Robertson somewhat confused, “What
fuckin’ horse is that?” The old trainer had to admit, “Wouldn’t have a clue. Hope it wins.”[26]
Telford and Lou Robertson remained
good friends until Robertson’s death in 1955. Harry Telford died of a stroke in
September 1960 at Underbank and buried out at Bacchus Marsh Cemetery. With only
£68 in the bank, some horse equipment, books and clothes, possibly the most
poignant of his remaining possessions was an oil painting valued at £50. It
must have hung in his small lodgings above the Underbank birthing stalls like a
Picture of Dorian Gray. While everything else had disintegrated along with his
finances and marriage, set in a beautiful frame was both his glory and his
nemesis: PHAR LAP. Painted by Stuart Reid all those years before, it did not
just capture Pike sitting aloft this legend, it captured that moment when Harry
Telford found, owned and trained the best horse in the world. And when all
racing knew the name Harry Telford. At his burial, there were no racing people
around his grave. His son, his daughter-in-law, priest, a couple of others and
some gravediggers were the only ones in attendance. No committee members, no
jockeys, no owners, no other trainers, no strappers or one to tell you what
this man had done for racing.
The reason why Harry Telford was
even out at Underbank in the first place was again largely due to Lou Robertson
looking after his friend. Despite the millions Sol Green made over the years
from being a bookie, he developed an almost pathological disrespect for chronic
gamblers who could not afford to gamble. Like any other addiction, he viewed it
as a weakness and a dreadful character flaw. That it had made him wealthy
beyond imagining sees Green’s attitude as that of a drug baron repulsed by drug
addicts. In his heart, Sol Green believed the only way you could make money from
following horses was with a shovel and spade[27].
Long ago Green recognised the tell-tale signs of chronic gamblers and when
looking at his eldest Robert, his heart broke. Realising there was little
redemption for it was only a matter of time before his son came to him again
destitute with hat in hand and being physically threatened by loan sharks.
All the time working at Underbank,
for Robert Green the situation became increasingly harder while relations between
father and son more fraught. By 1941, Sol Green and Bob parted company for over
four years. All in all, Bob Green was financially screwed. While his father may
have been one of the wealthiest individuals in Australia, Bob was fast becoming
one of its poorest. After Sol Green’s redrafted his will in 1944, that
situation was not about to change. Robert
knew his father had written him out of his will and what scant communication
between father and son was now carried on through Sol Green’s solicitors.
Eventually
Rob Green started back at Underbank but the relationship with his father hardly
improved. Still gambling, still falling ever deeper into a financial pit, Sol
Green had no intention of leaving Underbank to Robert Green. Not to a hopeless
gambler. As his health began deteriorating in the second half of 1946 from
bowel cancer, Sol Green started focusing more on having his affairs in order.
Despite a large property and share portfolio, the only real concern was how he
should deal with Underbank. While working on his 1944 will Green gave
instructions that Underbank would be sold with the proceeds going to charity.
By
his 1947 redrafting of the will, despite having a dispersal sale, Underbank had
not been sold. Green insisted it be readied for auction. Despite Robert
returning to the fold, it was repeatedly made plain to him that his ownership
of Underbank would be out of the question. Sol Green was more interested in
helping the genuinely needy and more deserving with £25,000 of blankets from proceeds
of the Underbank sale than building fences or forgiving his son’s gambling.[28] Again their relationship
disintegrated to a point where any correspondence, never mind actually having a
father-son conversation, was still being conducted through Sol Green’s
personal lawyer Pat Gorman or accountant Harry Buckley. Robert Green became determined
to buy Underbank even though a very large question remained - how?
Robert
Green knew he could not be seen personally bidding for Underbank, knowing his
father would have just as quickly stopped the auction. Bob Green asked Lou
Robertson a favour- could he bid for Underbank on his behalf? Hands on hips, Robertson
looked at him. He had known Robert Green for well for over 25 years and saw
firsthand how Sol Green treated him. Time and again the helpless predicament
Bob found himself in, whether this was self-inflicted or not, was no less
painful to witness. This request placed Lou Robertson in a bind. Robertson may have
fallen out with Sol Green in 1936 but harboured little desire to find himself
stuck in the middle of a family feud. Especially not this one. He eventually agreed
on the one condition- his friend Harry Telford would never find himself
homeless. More to the point, Telford could always find a home at Underbank if
need be. Anyway, this may have been a moot point for their chances of success
at auction would be slim, to say the least?
In
April 1947, the papers reported Mordialloc trainer Lou Robertson having purchased
Sol Green’s stud for £28,000.[29] Green ensured every paper in Australia and
New Zealand picked up the story, trumpeting the proceeds would be going towards
his blanket appeal.[30] Most present, including
the majority of the press, believed Robertson to be the genuine bidder. However, it very quickly became apparent to those in the racing community the reality of
this sale was a little different from what Sol Green and Robertson initially gave
to the papers. Somehow Robert Green did manage to cobble together enough
backing for £10,000 while the remaining funds would be borrowed against the
property value. Behind the scenes, a sale of Underbank to his son threw Sol
Green’s trusts and estate into complete disarray. Not expecting his oldest son
in total control of Underbank, Sol Green was livid. Yet the sale placed Sol
Green into a bind. He certainly did not wish to be publicly shamed by being
seen to back away from his pledge to give the proceeds of this sale to his
blanket appeal. From the outside looking in this sale appeared straightforward
but for Sol Green and his estate, Robert Green managed to make Underbank a very
costly sale indeed. While Eugene Gorman, Harry Buckley, Sol and second oldest son Louis Green
tried working out how they were going to do this, Sol Green began looking at
the situation more philosophically and relented. In calling his father’s bluff,
in effect, the estate would fund its own sale and put Robert Green in even
greater debt to the Sol Green estate rather than going through the banks or relying on Bob’s dubious backers. From Robert Green’s point of view, this mattered
little, he now had Underbank.
In
1957, on the point of being homeless after ill health forced him from racing, Harry Telford
was given lodgings by Robert Green in a loft above the broodmare’s foaling
stables. Telford assisted Green the best he could until being crippled by a
stroke in 1960. Harry Telford died in Bacchus Marsh Hospital a few months later
on September 3rd. Lou Robertson always had great affection for
Telford as his friend. Both men were often depicted in a similar light by the
press as being taciturn where in reality they were tough, confidential and could be amusing company. Telford, with a limited education, was an
exceptionally well read individual, a great conversationalist among friends and
very intelligent. What he lacked, which the great trainers like Jack Holt, Fred
Hoysted, Frank McGrath, James Scobie and Lou Robertson possessed in spades, was
imagination, creativity and a connection, understanding and empathy with their
horses. Without being able to waiver from his usual harsh training regime,
unless he had a horse with the iron constitution of Phar Lap, very few horses could cope having Telford as their
trainer. It did not make him a bad trainer as it did an inflexible one.
Throughout his long life, Lou Robertson had few better friends than Harry
Telford and in turn, apart from his own son Gerald, Telford had fewer more
loyal friends than the Robertson brothers.
In
2015, Telford was elevated to the Racing Hall of Fame more out of sentiment
rather than on any real basis of training excellence. On the other hand, if
anything warrants sentimentality it is the fairy tale of a struggling trainer
who plucks an obscure horse from a yearling sale and turns him into a legend.
If a dream is ever going to come true, the story of Phar Lap and Harry Telford is among the best. But sentimentality
alone does not place Telford ahead of Cecil Godby (2016), Eric Connolly, Vin
O’Neill, Charles Wheeler, Ron Cameron, Dave Price and a myriad of other
trainers worthier than Telford of Hall of Fame recognition.
Many of Telford’s problems were
self-inflicted by his stubbiness to deviate from his dream of being an owner
trainer. On the other hand, he had the dream and the self-belief to think he
could do it. With a modicum of luck, and had Phar Lap not died uninsured, or better still, just not died so he
could conquer America and Europe, it could have been a very different
story. There is no doubt Telford could
be inflexible, difficult to work with, and to work for, but there is also that
moment of how people cope with sudden success. Time and again, we hear of those
squandering inheritances, Lotto wins or even more to the point, those artists
and sports stars who suddenly find fame, glory and wealth. When the poverty
stricken Harry Telford found all these things through his wonder horse, in many
respects, his world tipped on its head. Sometimes these moments are mistaken for
a lifetime and Telford fell into the trap of believing he would have this
income forever. The debts he accrued so quickly through the leasing of Braeside
and purchasing of so many horses would eventually kill everything. Had he
decided to train for owners as did trainers Jack Holt and Lou Robertson, he
could have survived. But having to put up with the likes of David Davis for the
rest of his life made him determined never to be anybody’s trainer but his own.
One cannot but feel there was a third alternative Telford could have taken that
did not require such a crippling outlay. However, the art of compromise while
not feeling as if you are giving away one’s own soul was perhaps a tightrope
act Harry Telford could not, or would not, cross.
Tommy Woodcock passed away at
Yarrawonga in April 1985 at the home of Wayne Hinchcliffe.[31]
In 1977 Woodcock trained his magnificent stallion Reckless to victory in the Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney Cups.
Starting 20/1 almost every heart in the Flemington stand was urging on the
seven year old for the sake of his old trainer as Reckless made a run up the inside rail against Bart Cumming’s Black and Gold but just could not
sustain it. On the eve of the Cup, Bruce Postle took one of the greatest and
most endearing sporting photos of all time showing a 70 year old Tommy Woodcock
lying in the stable with a devoted Reckless.[32]
French Nobel Laureate Anotole France once said, “Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.”[33]Lou
Robertson, Harry Telford and Tommy Woodcock would have been the first to
endorse such a sentiment.
Life was obviously tough for Harry
Telford, but it proved in many respects just as difficult for his son Gerald
and daughter-in-law Nancy.[34]
The ghost of Phar Lap never left
them. Or more precisely, haunted Gerald for the remainder of his days turning
his life at moments into a never ending torment. While some families include
their sons and daughters such as The Cummings, Smith, Hayes and Hoysted clans
into continuing the family business, others such as Lou Robertsons’ sons were
banned from their father’s stable and not even put on a horse. Likewise, apart
from the photo opportunities to sit on Phar
Lap, Harry Telford wanted his son nowhere near a race track. He certainly
did not wish his son to repeat his own arduous life. As it turned out, Gerald
Telford needed very little prompting to be as far away from a racecourse and
racing folk as possible. It would have been a tremendous relief if his father
had been Harry Smith or Brown but unfortunately there were very few Telfords.
Gerald, who sold advertising, first for the Sporting Globe and later for Shell,
just needed a couple of sentences before the nightmare started up again.
“Hi,
I’m Gerald Telford.”
“Any
relation to Harry Telford?”
“He’s
was my father.”
“So
what really happened to Phar Lap? Do you reckon the yanks killed him?”
On the upside, from the point of
view of a sales opener, it probably helped open a few doors. But on most days you would hope Gerald always
had a fully stocked cupboard of expletives to fall back on. Some people are
overshadowed in life by a famous parent. For most people, the name Harry Telford
was simply a stepping stone to ask Gerald Telford more about Phar Lap. Imagine that following you
around like Banquet’s Ghost all your life? Especially as Gerald was of the
belief Phar Lap helped break up his
parent’s marriage. Elvira Telford just couldn’t take it anymore. Compounding
their difficulties, Telford discovered Elvira had a son from a previous
relationship and she ended up leaving Harry for her previous partner. Harry
Telford was destined to watch every dream slowly disintegrated and no horse he
chose or trained ever came close to rivaling Phar Lap. Every yearling sale he went to, Harry Telford could never
find “that” horse. And it slowly ate away until he simply vanished out to
Underbank, disappearing from racing and died.
In many ways, Gerald Telford became
quieter as well. The moment the subject of Phar
Lap entered the conversation, as it inevitably did, Gerry would go silent
until either he, or they, walked away or changed the subject. Nancy Telford
cannot say if the burden of Phar Lap
prematurely took her husband as a result of cancer, but she suspects it may
have and has no doubts “that horse” help kill Harry Telford’s unhappy marriage.
As she describes, “…the family just
collapsed.”[35]
And most of that was caused by Telford’s perpetual impoverishment and manically
chasing another Phar Lap like Captain
Ahab trying to find Moby Dick across an impossible expanse of ocean. Every one
of his dreams disintegrated to dust. Yet all the time the legend of Phar Lap continued to grow until it
swirls around and around weaving itself into our national psyche.
[1] “Phar Lap was not insured” by Tommy
Woodcock Sporting Globe, 5 December 1936, page 6
[2] Ibid
[3] Tommy Woodcock felt both Telford and Davis could have treated Phar Lap
better. The races he lost was due to being raced when not fully fit or carrying
g a slight injury. That he was only
insured for $8,000 was ridiculous and when he did die uninsured Woodcock as
good as stated, “Serves them right.” , 5 December 1936, page 6
[4] Ibid
[5] Mirror, 26 June 1954, page 16
[6] Phar Lap- The Untold Story – Graeme
Putt & Pat McCord
[7] Ibid - Just down the road at William Macdonough’s farm lay the resting
place of Phar Lap’s brilliant
granduncle, 1886 English Triple Crown winner Ormonde. (San Francisco Call, 23
May 1904, page 11)
[8] “Phar Lap” Geoff Armstrong &
Peter Thompson, page 10-11, extract from The Herald
[9] The Herald 7 August 1935, page 2
[10] St. Frusquin started 12 times, won ten of them and second in the
other two. Owned by the very well-heeled Leopold de Rothschild, those wins
included the 2000 Guineas and Eclipse Stakes.
[11] This shipment also included 1915
Caulfield Cup winner Lavendo and 1913
Williamstown Cup winner Sea Prince,
the sire of controversial 1924 Caulfield Cup winner Purser.
[12] The Australasia 19 November 1938,
page 13
[13] Better known as Lord D’Abernon,
a politician, diplomat, art collector, horse breeder and author of “Alcohol – Its Action on the Human Organism”
being one of his ripsnorter reads. My favourite chapter, “Alcohol and the Performance of Muscular Acts”. Don Reynaldo sired 1927 Doncaster
Handicap and Challenge Stakes winner Don
Moon, Western Australian champion Hoogly
from his match with Lavendo’s
dam, Lavella (also imported by Andrew
Robertson). Matched with Andol, Don Reynaldo sired double Newcastle Cup
and double AJC Summer Cup winner Donald.
[14] Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’
Advocate 9 August 1935 page 20
[15] The Argus 9 August 1935, page 12
[16] Son of Mars Buckley who created the
prestigious department store Buckley’s and Nunn that was later taken over by
David Jones
[17] The West Australian 6 April 1935 page
8
[18] The Argus 9 August 1935, page 12 At the same dispersal Andrew also
organised a representative of Julius Gove & Co, remount specialists for
India, to purchase Milky Way (25
guineas), Chief Ruler sired Polyxena (300) and Magpie sired Eillom (750)
and send the last two to Underbank to be served by Andrew’s imported stallion
for Sol Green, Lo Zingaro. (ibid)
[19] Kismet Park
[20] The Sydney Morning Herald 1 May 1930,
page 14
[21] A small aside ... Cruttenden went the
way most chosen by devoted racehorse owners ... his horse won a close finished
only to be followed by F.P. suddenly keeling over with a heart attack.
[22] Sporting Globe
[23] John Robertson
[24] Sunday Herald, 29 March 1953, page 2
[25] The Sunday Herald, 29 March 1953,
page 2
[26] Chilla Dow
[27] Robert Green
[28] The Argus 16 April 1947, page 5
[29] Advocate 18 April 1947, page 5
& Examiner 16 April 1947, page 10
[30] Examiner, 16 April 1947, page 10
[31]
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/woodcock-aaron-treve-tommy-14876
[32]
http://www.smh.com.au/sport/horseracing/sports-snapper-bruce-postle-always-thought-outside-the-square-20140208-328hj.html
[34] Gerald and
Nancy Telford met through their work at the Sporting Globe. Gerald Telford sold
advertising before moving to Shell to do the same. Nancy Telford worked as
personal secretary for Sporting Globe editor, Geoff Hawksley. Gerald Henry
Telford married Patricia Millicent (Nancy) Snow in 1948.
[35] Nancy Telford
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