The Chosen Few: A quest to name the greatest Australian and New Zealand racehorses of all time

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Andrew Rule

The Chosen Few

A quest to name the greatest Australian and New Zealand racehorses of all time

Andrew Rule

$34.99

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Allen & Unwin
23 September 2025

Australasian & Pacific history; Sports & outdoor recreation; Horse racing

They are the greatest Australian racehorses of all time, the giants who transcend the sport, who broke records and captured hearts.

But which are the best of the best? Is it Carbine or Malua in the nineteenth century or Tulloch or Phar Lap in the twentieth? Winx or Black Caviar in our own time?

Perhaps it is impossible to compare incomparables outside their own eras.

Andrew Rule was too big to be a jockey, too small to be a mounted policeman. But all his life he has watched horses and horse people and has written about both. About people who are not always admirable and about horses who so often are.

The horses he names in The Chosen Few include the sprinters, the stayers, the freakish all-round competitors who could do everything. But he also teases out myths and mistakes, pulls focus on racing's history and ponders the tantalising list of 'coodabeen' champions whose careers were cut short.

The result is a collection of stories about beauty and bravery, speed and greed.

By: Andrew Rule
Imprint: Allen & Unwin
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm,
ISBN: 9781761472886
ISBN 10: 1761472887
Publication Date: 23 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Andrew Rule is an award-winning reporter who can find the story behind the story and then write it using the techniques of a novelist. He is known for writing on crime and its detection but has also covered big sporting events from the London Olympics to the Melbourne Cup, war zones in Afghanistan and international disasters such as the Christchurch earthquake, Japan's tsunami and the Bali bombing. He has worked for three major daily newspapers and a national magazine, has written many books and is currently an Associate Editor of the Herald Sun in Melbourne. He grew up with horses, has hung around stables and has had a lifelong weakness for racing. He claims to be the only Australian Journalist of the Year to have ridden in a horse race.