Phar Lap's assault on the Melbourne Cup generated unprecedented excitement across the country. At the same time, it filled many bookmakers with dread a victory for the favourite would cost them plenty. He'd have to be stopped, whatever the cost. For the newspapers, the twin stories of sporting greatness and seedy corruption were a sensational cocktail. Readers lapped it up, while for the poor punters, suffering during the Great Depression, a Phar Lap triumph was their best hope of turning one quid into two. Melbourne Cup 1930 is the story of four days in November that became at the same time the most famous and infamous in Cup history. It began with a gunman, like something out of a Chicago gangster movie, apparently trying to kill Phar Lap on a quiet suburban street. With his life in danger and those closest to him terrified, the champion was spirited away to a secret location, while one of the city's most celebrated detectives searched for the culprits. Meanwhile, the other horses, owners, trainers and jockeys were preparing for the biggest race of their lives. Their many diverse stories and the memories they invoke of Cups gone by are an integral part of this unique tale. An hour before the jump, Phar Lap's whereabouts remained a mystery. Finally, he arrived at Flemington, to go almost immediately to the start as a huge crowd cheered him on. The police had been told to put men down the back of the track, in case the gunman tried one last time, but they now believed that the original assassination attempt might not have been all that it seemed. Nothing it appears could stop Phar Lap now

The book studies the many mysteries of Phar Lap's career, including the infamous shooting that occurred just days before his great triumph in the 1930 Melbourne Cup. The book examines the way an emerging media played its part in building the legend. The authors provide an analysis of his previously unexplained death in North America and explain why Phar Lap is much more than a racehorse.

Tommy Woodcock spent a long lifetime with horses, but is best remembered, and loved, as the young man who strapped and looked after Australia's legendary racehorse, Phar Lap. The 1930 Melbourne Cup winner and the people's champion of the Great Depression died mysteriously - cradled by Woodcock - in the US after winning against the odds in Agua Caliente, Mexico, at his only start overseas. The horseman called Phar Lap "Bobby", and knew him best. And Woodcock is fondly known, too, as the old man, who almost 50 years on, trained the gallant Reckless, second in the 1977 Melbourne Cup and winner of the other major "two-mile" races on the Australian turf calendar at the time, the Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane Cups. Reckless is the same horse Woodcock let children ride at the track on race day, and was pictured with bunked down in the straw, on the front page of The Age newspaper. Woodcock's life story and his great and heart-breaking moments with Phar Lap and Reckless are told in his own down-to- earth words by a master storyteller, Jan Wositzky, in this updated and revised edition, with a new introduction.

Phar Lap is one of Australia’s best-loved icons. The story of the gangly foal who became one of the greatest racehorses ever has captured Australians’ hearts for generations. Phar Lap: A True Legend, written by museum curator Michael Reason, has delighted and informed readers for the last five years. Now this fascinating story has been updated to include new evidence which finally reveals the reason behind the champion’s untimely death. Illustrated with archival images of the great horse, as well as colour images of many of the intriguing Phar Lap objects in the museum collection.

In this impressive book, Barbara Keys offers the first major study of the political and cultural ramifications of international sports competitions in the decades before World War II. Focusing on the United States, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union, she examines the transformation of events like the Olympic Games and the World Cup from relatively small-scale events to the expensive, political, globally popular extravaganzas familiar to us today.

Melbourne during the depression. A seedy, corrupt city. Someone has struck at the heart of Australia's soul: they have killed the horse that would have won the Melbourne Cup. For what motive? Profit, blackmail, a betting scam? Only Tom Pink, the rider of the murdered horse can find out. Tom, born into the underworld he now tries to defeat, exposes graft and blackmail that reaches to the upper echelons of Melbourne society. His life and the lives of those he holds close will never be the same again. The Great Melbourne Cup Mystery, written in 1933, a year after the mysterious death of Phar Lap (winner of the 1930 Melbourne Cup) is a previously lost classic of Australian crime fiction.

Phar Lap's hero status has endured for some 75 years and shows no sign of abating.Such was his grit that his spirit transcended racing. he was the foal from the backblocks of NZ who became champion of the world; the tall poppy who refused to be cut down; the winner who continually beat the odds. They changed the rules to beat him, but couldn't; on many occasions bookmakers would not set any price about him winning; and he was so invincible that on occasion trainers preferred not to run against him. But despite everything that has been written; no matter how well documented the Museum exhibits; or embellished are some latter-day versions of Phar Lap's story; until now, something has been missing - photographs of his wins. This book remedies that situation with his story being complemented by pictures of his 37 victories which emphasise Phar Lap's power and the ease with which he won many of his races.

The incredible story, for the first time told in novel form, of Phar Lap, the racehorse that became a champion, and then a legend. Phar Lap first ... daylight second. It became a familiar refrain from racecallers as the great horse tore up every race track and record, becoming the people's champion in 1930s Australia and abroad. For those closest to the mighty stallion it would be the ride of their lives, on and off the track, as careers, relationships and fortunes were made and lost in just a few years of unrivalled glory. Award winning author Kelly Ana Morey takes the reader beyond the racetrack histories and the popular mythologies and, for the first time in novel form, brings to life the characters and the times that turned Phar Lap into the legend he remains to this day. Equal parts tragedy, triumph, thriller and mystery, Daylight Second has a heart as big as Phar Lap himself.