Goofs

Early in the film, in early 1928, Phar Lap's trainer Harry Telford (Martin Vaughan) insists that the horse's name must contain seven letters, because the names of the last four Melbourne Cup winners had contained seven letters. In fact, only one of the previous four Melbourne Cup winners in the period in question, 1924-27, had seven letters in its name - Windbag, in 1925. The other winners in that period were Backwood (1924), Spearfelt (1926) and Trivalve (1927). Nor did the subsequent 1928 winner, Statesman, nor the 1929 winner, Nightmarch (to whom Phar Lap ran third), have seven letters in their names.

In the film, upon being unimpressed at first seeing the horse at the stables, Phar Lap's American owner Dave Davis (Ron Leibman) asks trainer Harry Telford (Martin Vaughan) why he hadn't written to anyone in New Zealand before buying the horse "sight unseen from a god damned catalog". This was actually incorrect. Harry Telford's brother Hugh lived in New Zealand and it was he, at the request of his brother and on behalf of Davis, who actually bid for and bought Phar Lap for 160 guineas at the 1928 Trentham Yearling Sales. Davis had in fact authorized Hugh Telford to bid as high as 190 guineas for the horse.

After gangsters failed in their bid to shoot Phar Lap before the 1930 Melbourne Cup, the film shows Woodcock and the horse immediately being taken to a secret location arranged by Davis and Telford (St Albans in Geelong, west-south-west of Melbourne). The film doesn't show that only hours after the attempt on Phar Lap's life, he had won the Melbourne Stakes. The attempted shooting took place only 3 days before the Melbourne Cup, though the film makes it appear like it was at least one week out from the race.