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.