The Australian racing industry has asked to borrow the skeleton of Phar Lap to help celebrate this year's 150th Melbourne Cup.
The bones of the champion thoroughbred have been on display in national museums in New Zealand since the 1930s.
Victorian Racing Minister Rob Hulls says he wants to reunite the bones with Phar Lap's hide, already on display in Melbourne, and his heart, held in a museum in Canberra.
Te Papa says it will examine the condition of the bones before making a decision.
Phar Lap won the Melbourne Cup in 1930 before dying in mysterious circumstances two years later.
The horse's remains were divided between New Zealand and Australia and his heritage has been argued about ever since.
