Makybe Diva, ridden by Glen Boss, races to the post to win the 2005 Emirates Melbourne Cup. She became the first horse ever to win Australia's most famous race three times.
Volume III: In Our Time (2008) (continued)
Uniquely giving emphasis to the story in the smaller states as well as the larger and richer ones, the book also examines the turbulent racing history of the sport, or industry, in an attempt to demystify the jargon of privatization, rationalization and internationalization.
Standing alone as a history of modern racing, it is also a sequel to Dr Andrew Lemon’s previous two books on the beginnings and the golden age of Australian racing, and is the long awaited conclusion to the trilogy. Like volume one and two, it is structured around Harold Freedman’s History of Racing mural at Flemington – a sequence of seven enormous paintings based on the original research which is the foundation of this book. Scenes from the mural’s final two panels are beautifully reproduced throughout this volume, supplemented by dozens of photographs and the works of other artists.
The mural, twenty years after its completion, perhaps only now is beginning to be recognised as a master work. In its own intricate detail it conveys something of the richness and complexity of the sport and the beauty of Australian horse racing in its first two hundred years. Book and mural were conceived together and now the saga reaches its conclusion.
