Champion Australian trainer Bart Cummings has helped bridge the trans-Tasman gulf over the legendary racehorse Phar Lap by agreeing to be patron of the New Zealand-based Phar Lap Charitable Trust.
For years Australia and New Zealand have bickered over Phar Lap, who won 37 of his 51 starts including the 1930 Melbourne Cup, with the Australians claiming him as their own even though he was born near Timaru in 1926.
Phar Lap's hide is in the Museum of Victoria in Museum, his heart is in Canberra's National Museum, and his skeleton at Te Papa in Wellington.
Now through the efforts of the trust, Timaru is moving to celebrate his deeds with a life-sized bronze statue of him stretching out in full stride planned for the entrance to Phar Lap Raceway at Washdyke, 6km north of the South Canterbury city.
Fundraising for the $NZ500,000 ($A456,700) project has gone from a canter to a gallop since a wax model of the statue by sculptor Joanne Sullivan-Gessler was unveiled last month and charitable trust member Derek Mayne said Cummings' agreement to be patron would assist the cause greatly.
"You have to have a legend to be a patron of a legend and we are very lucky to have Bart, because being an 11-times winning trainer of the Melbourne Cup speaks for itself."
The trust wants to get financial support from Australians as well as New Zealanders for its project and Cummings, who turns 80 in November, would be an important figurehead, Mayne said.
He said Cummings had forged close links to New Zealand during his great career, buying yearlings - including Light Fingers and Galilee who went on to win Melbourne Cups - from the same sales ring, Trentham, that Phar Lap was sold to Sydney trainer Harry Telford's brother Hugh in 1928 and sent to Australia.
Nearly $250,000 has so far been promised for the statue and the trust is currently seeking an underwriter so it can firm up a date when it hopes the statue can be launched publicly, Mayne said.
"While the statue will be located at Washdyke and be an icon that will engender a sense of pride in all New Zealanders, we believe it has the potential to be a definite "must-see" on the New Zealand tourist trail, especially for Australian racing fans."
The statue, which will depict regular jockey Jim Pike aboard, will be mounted on a marble plinth which the trust says will give the impression of size, sound and movement.
It will also have a fountain playing water under the horse which will emulate the sound of a racehorse galloping at full stride.
