In Australian jumps racing, the name Mosstrooper is comparable to that of Phar Lap on the flat.
They raced in the same era, Mosstrooper claiming the Grand National Hurdle/Steeplechase double a few months before Phar Lap won his Melbourne Cup in 1930.
Mosstrooper is still the only horse to have completed the feature jumps double in a single year. A year earlier, he won both the Australian Hurdle and Australian Steeple.
From 1928 to 1933 he won 11 times over the jumps and placed on another 10 occasions.
Mosstrooper’s legend was born at Bendigo, the venue where a feature steeplechase will once again be run in his honour this Sunday.
Mosstrooper’s first win over jumps came in a Brush Steeple over two miles (3200m) on May 17, 1928.
In those days Bendigo hosted a two-day winter carnival and Mosstrooper was among 44 horses who caught the train from Melbourne for the festivities.
It was his third start over jumps. He’d finished fourth at the old Sandown Park track five days earlier.
The Bendigo Jockey Club proudly lists Mosstrooper’s name along with those of Better Loosen Up, Hyperno, Bletchingly and more on its “Nursery of Champions” honour roll outside the track, recognising horses who won their first race at Bendigo. But Mosstrooper took a while to evolve into a champion.
For his next two starts, Mosstrooper headed to Sydney for a couple of feature steeplechases.
Randwick hosted jumps racing in those days and the steeple course would have been quite spectacular as it headed up the hill at the back of the track, coming down again and rejoining the course proper between the existing 1400m and 1200m chutes.
Not that Mosstrooper got to test himself on the hill. He fell in both races before leaving the steeple track on the inside of the course proper.
For a horse rightly regarded as a jumping legend, he fell over a lot. 
He took another four tumbles in his fine career.
Read all about it
If you want to know more about the Mosstrooper legend, Peter Harris has produced a colourful history, Mosstrooper: Hack to Hero.
The book, which includes stunning photos of jumping from that era, is available at www.mosstrooperbook.com ($42 including postage).
Another hero
Sunday will see the sixth running of the Mosstrooper Steeplechase.
In the past two years the Mosstrooper has been in the news, not for who won the race but for who was pulled up in the back straight.
The great Bashboy won the race in 2013, but was eased out of it when not travelling well in 2014 and 2015.
In 2014 he was a $1.30 chance Last year, wary about what happened 12 months earlier, punters let him go off an easing $3.20 hope. He had opened at $1.85.
The Patrick Payne-trained Sea King is back to defend the title he secured last year.
He looks in good form again, following an impressive win in the feature Thackeray Steeple at Warrnambool on July 10.
King reigns
The Pat Hyland-trained King Triton is likely to have another tilt at the feature jumps races following his tough win at Racing.com Park last Sunday.
Getting in with 69.5kg after the claim for Jarrod Lynch, King Triton looked to be struggling coming to the second-last only to outstay his rivals over the closing stages.
His cause was helped when Jacks ’n’ Kings took a scary tumble at the last.
Despite landing on his neck with his body turning at right angles, Jacks ’n’ Kings escaped with a few abrasions to his legs.
Glorious win
Darren Weir unveiled another exciting jumper when Glorious Sinndar used his superior flat form to outlast Monte Carlo in the maiden hurdle.
Glorious Sinndar started at a prohibitive $1.28 for his jumping debut. After a few shaky moments, punters knew their cash was safe when he jumped the last within striking distance of Monte Carlo. In the run to the post, the quality that saw Glorious Sinndar claim the listed Andrew Ramsden Stakes (3200m) at his latest flat run kicked in.
Weir’s current jumping star, Gingerboy, showed he is going to be hard to beat when he returns to the hurdles in Sunday’s $100,000 Brendan Dreschler Hurdle with a close fourth on the flat at Caulfield last Saturday.
Gingerboy hasn’t jumped since being just outlasted by Arch Fire in a stirring Australian Hurdle on May 28.