During the depression years of the 1930s when people were struggling with unemployment and hard times Australia needed a “battlers” hero — and Phar Lap provided it.

Bought for only 160 guineas he not only consistently beat the best but often annihilated them, winning by up to 20 lengths.

In the 1930 Flemington spring carnival he won a race on each of the four days, with his runaway victory in the Cup, lumping 9 stone 12 pounds (62.5kg) one of the great moments of Australian sport, surely replayed more often than any other horserace.