Kerry Negara embarks on a forensic investigation around the treacherous death to discover why the champion was so brutally killed. The authenticity of Phar Lap’s iconic heart specimen at the National Museum of Australia is in serious doubt. The Death of Phar Lap – what really happened. Kerry Negara’s Podcast - Killing Phar Lap – A Forensic Investigation – is to be released on Melbourne Cup Day Eve
2nd November 2020. Melbourne Cup Day, 2020 is the 90th Anniversary of Phar Lap’s inspiring win at the 1930 Melbourne. Is this the biggest hoax in Australian cultural history? Writer / Producer Kerry Negara’s 5 year research has found that the iconic heart of our greatest race horse, the loved champion Phar Lap, displayed at the National Museum in Canberra could not possibly belong to Phar Lap. Kerry has accumulated enough suspicious evidence around the questionable validity of Phar Lap’s heart specimen, to lead her to request the national museum executive give the go-ahead for the DNA tests to be performed on heart pieces by DNA experts in France. Kerry Negara has evidence from several sources including vital archival interviews, and is quite certain that the heart had been swapped for a draught horse's heart by Phar Lap’s vet William (Bill) Nielsen, who shipped the fake heart from San Francisco to the then Institute of Anatomy in Sydney in April 1932. Exactly why Nielsen would do this is one of the subjects of Kerry Negara’s soon to be released Podcast, Killing Phar Lap: a forensic investigation. Today Kerry says this is possibly the biggest hoax ever played out on the Australian people who visit Phar lap’s iconic heart specimen in their thousands every year. Against the odds, Kerry has made the first complete forensic investigation into the death of Phar Lap and has discovered who killed Phar Lap, why and how. “It is a grisly story and in this case the truth is much more interesting than fiction. Phar Lap died an horrendously painful death and I was determined to bring justice to Phar Lap and those closest to him. Unfortunately there is so much misinformation and myriad untruths published about Phar Lap’s death that get passed on year in year out.”
Kerry Negara travelled across the USA from San Francisco to Chicago to meet with relatives and people who were connected to the owners and staff of the ranch where Phar Lap died. What she found were stories passed down from parents to children from impeccable sources. Kerry was finding large missing pieces of the jigsaw she had been putting together over several years. Kerry's podcast, Killing Phar Lap: A Forensic Investigation, will be released on Melbourne Cup Eve 2nd November, on the 90th Anniversary of Phar Lap's incredible win at the 1930 Melbourne Cup. This podcast recreates the events around Phar Lap’s death to finally reveal the truth of what happened to Phar Lap in the United States. Kerry Negara: Writer / Producer
Richard Di Gregorio: Technical Producer
Logo Design: Sophie O'Connor
