Volume II: The Golden Years (1990)

In the second volume, the history of Australian thoroughbred racing moves through years remembered as golden, when legends were born. But not all legends measure up to reality. It was the author of this book who first revealed that Archer did not (as had become widely believed) walk from News South Wales to win the first Melbourne Cup: the horse came by ship.

The book travels the path from Archer's time and that of The Barb to the two most famous Australian racehorses who were not Australian at all – Carbine and Phar Lap. But the familiar names are just part of the cavalcade. This volume brings back to life many forgotten equine heroes and half remembered stories.

Three things make this book unique. The first is that it tells the story of the development of horse racing, in detail, in each of the Australian states. The differences between the stories turn out to be remarkable. The second is that it has been researched from contemporary books, and it explains the social and political background to its events. At last the confused jumble of Australian racing history has been clearly explained.