Phar Lap's broken heart mystery solved
A heart-breaking mystery surrounding one of Australia's greatest sporting icons has been solved after more than 80 years.
The pieces sliced out of Phar Lap's heart in an autopsy in 1932 have finally been found in the National Museum of Australia's collection in Canberra.
The museum has had the racing champion's heart on display since it opened in 2001.
But the whereabouts of the pieces cut out of it during testing at the University of Sydney, soon after the thoroughbred's sudden death, has always been a mystery.
That was until conservator Natalie Ison was sorting through jars of horse parts the museum inherited from the Australian Institute of Anatomy.
She was working out what should be included in a new exhibition about the role of horses in Australian history.
"She did something that probably no one's done for many, many years, which was to slightly tip the jar that she could look at the bottom," senior curator Martha Sear said on Wednesday.
Underneath two jars were labels listing the parts they contained - and the word "Lap".
Ms Ison immediately emailed her colleagues with an image of the label and the parts.
The moment they put together the image and the potential of the word was "a moment that will live in our memories forever", Dr Sear said.
DNA testing can't be done - because the formaldehyde used to preserve the tissues destroys DNA - but the museum is confident it's found the missing pieces.
But a horse anatomy expert determined the missing pieces were a neat fit for the rest of the heart.
Once the exhibition Spirited: Australia's Horse Story closes in March, its experts will look at how they can further test the specimens to add to Phar Lap's story.
But Dr Sear says mystery will always surround the horse's death in California.
Spirited: Australia's Horse Story opens at the National museum of Australia in Canberra on September 11 and runs until March 9, 2015.
