Daylight Second

The incredible story, for the first time told in novel form, of Phar Lap, the racehorse that became a champion, and then a legend. And he's done it folks ... Phar Lap first, daylight second. In a new novel about the Australian race horse Phar Lap, award -winning writer, Kelly Ana Morey recreates the short life of the gigantic chestnut gelding who became the darling of the Australian race tracks during the Depression years. From Timaru in New Zealand where he was born, to Australia where he rewrote track and race records and finally Mexico where he would run his last race, Daylight Second chronicles the death threats and attempts on Phar Lap's life that were made before the running of two of the three Melbourne Cups he contested, his many triumphs including winning the Melbourne Cup in 1930 and the Agua Caliente Handicap in 1932, and finally his death in America in mysterious circumstances. Part richly imagined biography, part portrait of two marriages, Daylight Second is also the story of the people who knew the champion race horse as Bobbie; his trainer Harry Telford and beloved strapper Tommy Woodcock, and the two very different women who would become their wives. This extraordinary novel by one of New Zealand's most audacious writers, brings to life the excitement of the track, the highs and lows of the racing game, and the challenges faced by urban working-class Australians between the wars.