Canberra: Australia's greatest sporting mystery has been partly solved with scientists on Monday saying champion racehorse Phar Lap was poisoned before his US. race debut 74 years ago. Phar Lap won 37 starts over a four-year career including Australia's best-known race, the Melbourne Cup, in 1932.

But the champion chestnut galloper, known as “Big Red” by depression-era Australians, was found with blood pouring from his lungs in California on April 5, 1932, and died before a U.S. race in which he was tipped to beat all comers. Australian scientists using U.S. particle accelerator technology, said careful analysis of preserved hair samples had proved Phar Lap was given a lethal dose of arsenic around 35 hours before his death.

“You will never get a 100 percent definite answer,” he said.

Phar Lap, whose name is Thai for lightning, won 32 of his last 35 starts. The horse’s body is a popular exhibit in Melbourne, while Phar Lap's heart is preserved at a museum in the Australian capital Canberra.                        (REUTERS)