- 1983 edition, 252 pages
- Published by Budget Books Pty Ltd, Australia
- Hardcover with dust jacket, brown boards
- Very good condition, some fading to dust jacket. Minor foxing to end papers.
Illustrated. Phar Lap won the Melbourne Cup on the first Tuesday in November 1930. It is possible that his feats will never be beaten.
But the story of Phar Lap is more than that of a remarkable horse. It is the story of the Depression, of winning and losing in hard times. There is the battling trainer, who couldn't even pay his feed bill, who brought Phar Lap sight-unseen for 160 guineas, which he didn't have.
There is Phar Lap, who on that sale day was so ugly and ungainly he was almost passed in.
There is the wily American businessman who put up the 160 guineas and became a part owner of the future champion. In the next four years the American and a small band of friends pull off betting coups that today would be worth millions of dollars.
They never actually break the law. But they work a shuffle on the 1930 Caulfield and Melbourne Cups that puts another horse out of the running, and on the big day helps send several bookies broke.
There are those who wake up to what is going on. And they do break the law. They try to shoot the champion who the public affectionately know as "Big Red". When that fails they threaten acid and poison darts.
Phar Lap wins through. But he is beaten by the bureaucrats and the petty thinkers. They change the rules so he has to carry as much as three stone more than his rivals. The owner is forced to take him to the United States, whgere this giant of a horse quickly becomes a pawn.
This book moves at a fast pace. It is not a dry historical narrative. You are there as the story unfolds, in the betting ring, the clubs, the streets and in the saddle.
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