Sculptured Meaning

At Timaru’s Phar Lap Raceway, a bronze statue of the famed Big Red and his regular jockey, Jim Pike takes pride of place. Today, the South Island city is making full use of the Phar Lap connection. Timaru’s fine-dining venue, Ginger & Garlic, serves up a tribute Big Red rib eye; Petite cocktail bar serves up a Red Terror and memorabilia is for sale at the tourist information centre. The port city is most definitely in it for the long haul — the Joanne Sullivan-Gessler-designed statue is only the first stage of a three-stage project that will eventually include a Phar Lap museum and cafe built at the racetrack. Phar Lap was born in Timaru on October 4, 1926. He died suddenly in California, due to arsenic poisoning in 1932.