I never made the connection :

Phar Lap's name means 'lightning' in Thai. How a horse in Australia got a Thai name is a story in itself. A young man called Aubrey Ping, then a student in medicine at the University of Sydney, regularly watched horses in trackwork at Randwick and would often 'chew the fat' with riders and trainers.

Ping's father was a Zhuang speaker who migrated to Australia in the 19th century from southern China. Young Aubrey learnt some Zhuang from his father, and the Zhuang language shares with Thai the name for lightning. The use of the letters 'ph', instead of a simple 'f', created a seven letter name that was split into two words: Phar Lap. This was essential to Harry Telford because it replicated the dominant pattern set by Melbourne Cup winners.

thanks for that muldoon. i always assumed phar lap was an aborigine name.

what's also interesting to me is to learn that the thai language has similarities to a southern chinese dialect, i was under the impression that it was a completely unique language. wonder how this came about.

Champion horse, to be fair Kiwi origin, and killed by the americans, poison is the suspected way

Broncs, you beat me to it.Id go a wee bit further and say that it's a Kiwi hourse that you buggers pinched.

Phar Lap was born in Timaru, New Zealand, on 4 October 1926 and was purchased by American-born David J Davis in that same year for 160 guineas.

The gelding died in the United States on a ranch on 5 April 1932, amid controversial circumstances. The Australian Institute of Anatomy displayed the heart for many years. Phar Lap's mounted hide is in the Museum Victoria and his skeleton is in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Phar Lap's abnormally large heart, weighing 6.2 kilograms (the average for a horse is 4.0 kilograms), is a popular object in the National Historical Collection, a testament of the great affection in which Phar Lap was, and still is, held by the Australian people.

I never made the connection :

Phar Lap's name means 'lightning' in Thai. How a horse in Australia got a Thai name is a story in itself. A young man called Aubrey Ping, then a student in medicine at the University of Sydney, regularly watched horses in trackwork at Randwick and would often 'chew the fat' with riders and trainers.

Ping's father was a Zhuang speaker who migrated to Australia in the 19th century from southern China. Young Aubrey learnt some Zhuang from his father, and the Zhuang language shares with Thai the name for lightning. The use of the letters 'ph', instead of a simple 'f', created a seven letter name that was split into two words: Phar Lap. This was essential to Harry Telford because it replicated the dominant pattern set by Melbourne Cup winners.

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I dont know if is true or not but I was told that a invester in the horse had a Thai wife or girlfriend

Edited October 26, 200520 yr by Rigger

Encyclopaedia of NZ

The name Phar Lap derives from Cingalese and refers to lightning or something which moves quickly across the heavens. No horse did more to live up to such a name.

Cingalese

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Chingalese, according to The Nuttall Encyclopaedia was a term used to describe a a native of Ceylon. When compared to Sinhalese, it needs to be seen as a variant spelling.

Sinhalese

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Sinhalese may refer to more than one article:

Sinhalese language, or Sinhala, an Indo Aryan language

the Sinhalese people, an ethnic group of Sri Lanka

Here's a cut and paste from Wikipedia:

The Zhuang are of Tai origin, a people who migrated south from central China roughly 5000 years ago. The Zhuang settled in what is now Guangxi, while other Tai peoples continued to migrate South to create the Lao, Thai and Shan peoples of Indochina. It is suggested the Tai peoples migrated for food purposes, as the culture developed a unique irrigation system which was useful for growing rice. As the soil was terrible for this purpose in Central China, the Tai sought out more fertile plains.

I've read that the Thai language is generally considered to be of Sino-Tibeten origen.

I found a link on the internet that said that the person who probably named the horse did not speak Thai but spoke Zhuang so in my book this means that Phar Lap has a Zhuang name and the only Thai connection appears to be the coincidence that Thai uses the same word for lightning...as do many other local languages in southern China.

I never made the connection :

Phar Lap's name means 'lightning' in Thai. How a horse in Australia got a Thai name is a story in itself. A young man called Aubrey Ping, then a student in medicine at the University of Sydney, regularly watched horses in trackwork at Randwick and would often 'chew the fat' with riders and trainers.

Ping's father was a Zhuang speaker who migrated to Australia in the 19th century from southern China. Young Aubrey learnt some Zhuang from his father, and the Zhuang language shares with Thai the name for lightning. The use of the letters 'ph', instead of a simple 'f', created a seven letter name that was split into two words: Phar Lap. This was essential to Harry Telford because it replicated the dominant pattern set by Melbourne Cup winners.

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Muldoon,

Shame on you for calling Phar Lap an Aussie horse.

thanks for that otherstuff1957 and chownah. precious stuff.

being of chinese extraction myself, i have never heard of the zhuang people. and thai is a completely alien language to me. apart from a few adopted words clearly taken from the teochew chinese immigrants, i have never heard anything else vaguely similar to the 2 or 3 other chinese dialects i am familiar with.

Edited October 26, 200520 yr by thedude

thanks for that otherstuff1957 and chownah.  precious stuff.

being of chinese extraction myself, i have never heard of the zhuang people.  and thai is a completely alien language to me. apart from a few adopted words clearly taken from the teochew chinese immigrants, i have never heard anything else vaguely similar to the 2 or 3 other chinese dialects i am familiar with.

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If Phar Lap was a NZ horse,how did it get named in Australia?...and a zhuang name at that. Why does the NZ sources say that it is a Cingalese name?????

thanks for that otherstuff1957 and chownah.  precious stuff.

being of chinese extraction myself, i have never heard of the zhuang people.  and thai is a completely alien language to me. apart from a few adopted words clearly taken from the teochew chinese immigrants, i have never heard anything else vaguely similar to the 2 or 3 other chinese dialects i am familiar with.

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I took another look and I might be wrong about the term far lap being in the other dialects....the link only said that 18 million people speakers and that the other related languages had millions more.....it does not say that far lap is part of these other dialects...so I was wrong. Thanks for helping me find my error.

Anyone wants to see what I found can google "Who named phar lap". The link I read is this one: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2003/hc33.htm

I found a link on the internet that said that the person who probably named the horse did not speak Thai but spoke Zhuang so in my book this means that Phar Lap has a Zhuang name and the only Thai connection appears to be the coincidence that Thai uses the same word for lightning...as do many other local languages in southern China.

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It wouldn't be THIS LINK perchance ?

I just asked my mom what the word for lightning is(cos my thai sucks), and she said Phar Lap.

So I guess you could say that in this day and age it is a Thai name, but in yesteryear the name had more disputable linguistic origins.

I never made the connection :

Phar Lap's name means 'lightning' in Thai. How a horse in Australia got a Thai name is a story in itself. A young man called Aubrey Ping, then a student in medicine at the University of Sydney, regularly watched horses in trackwork at Randwick and would often 'chew the fat' with riders and trainers.

Ping's father was a Zhuang speaker who migrated to Australia in the 19th century from southern China. Young Aubrey learnt some Zhuang from his father, and the Zhuang language shares with Thai the name for lightning. The use of the letters 'ph', instead of a simple 'f', created a seven letter name that was split into two words: Phar Lap. This was essential to Harry Telford because it replicated the dominant pattern set by Melbourne Cup winners.

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Muldoon,

Shame on you for calling Phar Lap an Aussie horse.

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well the passage I quoted only mentions a horse IN Australia, which is correct.There is no comment on his heritage...and we alll know the best mares are born and bred in NZL ..yes that is a metaphor !

More famous than Secretariat? Than Man O'War?

And....Secretariat was trained and ridden by Canadians!

[

I dont know if is true or not but I was told that a invester in the horse had a Thai wife or girlfriend

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yes, that is why the horse got sick

More famous than Secretariat? Than Man O'War?

And....Secretariat was trained and ridden by Canadians!

I can't believe it took until page 2 for the Yanks to bite.

More famous than Secretariat? Than Man O'War?

And....Secretariat was trained and ridden by Canadians!

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you forgot Old Bones

Red Rum is not a Thai name!!! Shergar maybe.

Nijinsky and Northern Dancer are more famous than Phar Lap, which I would transliterate from Thai as 'Fa Laeb'.

Maybe the OP meant Australia's most famous horse.

I've wondered for years why there are no famous Scottish racehorses, even Ben Nevis wasn't.

I thought Phar Lap was Australian.

Nijinsky and Northern Dancer are more famous than Phar Lap, which I would transliterate from Thai as 'Fa Laeb'.

And there was a specific reason way back in the late 20's why the horse's name was transliterated to exactly 7 letters !!

I thought Phar Lap was Australian

Fowled in Timaru, New Zealand.

Most famous horse? Never heard of it.

Red Rum

or

Shergar

or

Seabiscuit.

Edited October 27, 200520 yr by bluebear

Most famous horse?  Never heard of it.

Red Rum

or

Shergar

or

Seabiscuit.

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well its subjective isn't it and proportional to ones exposure,experience and bias...i've never heard of red rum....but the crux of the topic is the "thai" name,which I find to be a most interesting peice of trivia !

More famous than Secretariat? Than Man O'War?

And....Secretariat was trained and ridden by Canadians!

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I can't believe it took until page 2 for the Yanks to bite.

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Not me, Old Croc.

Most famous horse?  Never heard of it.

Red Rum

or

Shergar

or

Seabiscuit.

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well its subjective isn't it and proportional to ones exposure,experience and bias...i've never heard of red rum....but the crux of the topic is the "thai" name,which I find to be a most interesting peice of trivia !

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Even though its not actually a Thai name. hahahahahahha

I never made the connection :

Phar Lap's name means 'lightning' in Thai. How a horse in Australia got a Thai name is a story in itself. A young man called Aubrey Ping, then a student in medicine at the University of Sydney, regularly watched horses in trackwork at Randwick and would often 'chew the fat' with riders and trainers.

Ping's father was a Zhuang speaker who migrated to Australia in the 19th century from southern China. Young Aubrey learnt some Zhuang from his father, and the Zhuang language shares with Thai the name for lightning. The use of the letters 'ph', instead of a simple 'f', created a seven letter name that was split into two words: Phar Lap. This was essential to Harry Telford because it replicated the dominant pattern set by Melbourne Cup winners.

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Muldoon,

Shame on you for calling Phar Lap an Aussie horse.

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well the passage I quoted only mentions a horse IN Australia, which is correct.There is no comment on his heritage...and we alll know the best mares are born and bred in NZL ..yes that is a metaphor !

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He's going blind like his dad said he would if he kept it up.

The most famous English horse does have a Thai name actually .

Led Lum ask my gf

Most famous horse?  Never heard of it.

Red Rum

or

Shergar

or

Seabiscuit.

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well its subjective isn't it and proportional to ones exposure,experience and bias...i've never heard of red rum....but the crux of the topic is the "thai" name,which I find to be a most interesting peice of trivia !

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Even though its not actually a Thai name. hahahahahahha

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hence the double quotes.