Los Gatos Weekly-Times file photograph

The town of Los Gatos's namesake was a champion local racehorse but never made it to the Kentucky Derby.

Picture from the Past

Locals cheered Australian race horse and 'Los Gatos'

By John S. Baggerly

The Bay Area-raised racehorse named after the town of Los Gatos had victories and misfortunes, but nothing as bad as what befell Phar Lap, the Australian wonder horse, who died unexpectedly April 5, 1932, in a meadow north of Los Gatos near the Menlo Park area.

Hard feelings were compounded because the handsome animal, 17 hands high, had been shot at a few months prior to his winning the prestigious Melbourne Cup in his homeland the same year. Later, cooler heads reasoned that the shooting was an act of the bookies who were "taking a bath" whenever the handsome male gelding ran. The public reasoned that the purpose of the shot was to frighten away bets on Phar Lap. Some people suspected some evil Yank of poisoning Phar Lap, whose name Down Under means "Wink of the Skies" or "Lightning."

There was also another reason to mistrust the Yanks, for it was not long before the 1930s that an Australian professional boxer seeking his fortune in the United States was shot to death while eating breakfast. Rumor has it there may have been a "love angle" in this killing. The boxer was eating breakfast at the home of an American woman when the shot was fired through an open window.

Still another reason for the Aussies to mistrust the Americans has to do with the hundreds of Australians who sailed to San Francisco when "gold fever" broke out in the Sierra not far from Sacramento. Gold diggers who managed to dig up a stake often fell prey to saloon or brothel keepers. Those who made money were men like Leland Stanford, who saw the advantage of going into the hardware business.

But back to Phar Lap--cooler heads later learned that the big chestnut runner had died after being exposed to a poisonous spray that was applied to the meadow before the horses arrived.

Many Los Gatans sympathized with the Australians and their loss of Phar Lap, especially because localites had their own high hopes attached to Los Gatos. Owned by John Harris and trained by Carla Gaines near Livermore, Los Gatos was one of three Bay Area-based horses entered in the California Derby, a steppingstone to the Kentucky Derby.

Los Gatos was unbeaten in three races at Golden Gate Fields and was entered in the California Derby. Despite an intestinal flu, he finished third, but that wasn't good enough.

And why did owner Harris name his horse Los Gatos? "I liked the sound of the name," he said.

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