Carbine
racehorse Melbourne Cup 1890
Carbine
(1885-1914), was a New Zealand Thoroughbred racehorse, who competed
in New Zealand and later Australia. He was a bay stallion by the English
Ascot Stakes-winner and successful sire Musket out of the imported
mare Mersey by Knowsley. Carbine was born at Sylvia Park Stud near
Auckland, New Zealand on 18 September 1885. He was in-bred to Brown
Bess in the third and fourth generations.
When fully mature, he stood about 16.1 hands in height, possessed
good conformation and temperament, although he had some foibles. Owing
to his performance on the track and his subsequent achievements as
a sire, he became one of five inaugural inductees into both the New
Zealand Racing Hall of Fame and the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.
During his career on the race track, Carbine started 43 times for
33 wins, six seconds and three thirds, failing to place only once
due to a badly split hoof. He was popular with racing fans, and sporting
commentators of the day praised him for his gameness, versatility,
stamina and weight-carrying ability, as well as for his speed.
Carbine, nicknamed "Old
Jack," was unbeaten in five starts in top-class races as a two-year-old
in New Zealand. He then was taken to Australia, where he won nine
of 13 starts as a three-year-old.
One highlight that year was his win in the AJC Sydney
Cup of 2 miles (3.22 km) carrying 12 lb (5.5 kg) over weight-for-age.
Despite suffering interference at the half-mile post and being buffeted
back to last place, Carbine won by a head in a record time of 3 min
31 s. (Race times were slower in Carbine's era than now due, among
other factors, to the rough state of tracks and the upright posture
in the saddle assumed by 19th-century jockeys.)
At the end of his three-year-old racing season, Carbine was sold by
his owner-trainer Dan O'Brien for 3,000 guineas and prepared by his
new owners for racing in Sydney and Melbourne.
As a four- and five-year-old, Carbine won 17 of what would prove to
be his last 18 races. On four occasions Carbine won twice on the same
day. His victory in the 1890 Melbourne
Cup was noteworthy. He set a weight-carrying record of 10 st 5
lb (66 kg) in the Cup, beating a field of 39 starters and setting
a record time for the race. He carried 53 lb (24 kg) more than the
second-place horse, Highborn.
Carbine was owned for most of his Australian career by Donald Wallace,
a wealthy horse-breeder, investor, and Member of the Victorian Parliament.
Walter Hickenbotham, a prominent Melbourne-based horseman, trained
him. Wallace and Hickenbotham planned to enter Carbine in the 1891
Melbourne Cup and other major events of that year's turf calendar
but a chronic heel injury thwarted their intentions, and Carbine was
retired to Wallace's stud.
Carbine proved his potential as a sire the following year, 1892, by
siring a colt named Wallace, who went on to become an outstanding
racehorse and sire. Wallace was considered the best of Carbine's Australian-bred
progeny. He won several important races and despite limited stud opportunities
was the leading sire of the 1915/16 Australian season. Wallace also
finished three times second and three times third on the sires' table.
During Carbine’s short Australian stud career he sired the winners
of 203½ races worth £48,624, including the multiple stakes
winners, Amberite and La Carabine.
In 1895, the Duke of Portland purchased Carbine for 13,000 guineas.
He was shipped from Melbourne to the Duke's English stud at Welbeck
Abbey where he was the second stud sire to the outstanding St. Simon,
who covered the best mares. In spite of this Carbine went on to sire
Spearmint, the 1906 Epsom Derby winner. Spearmint in turn sired Spion
Kop, who also won the Derby. Spion Kop's offspring included another
Derby winner, Felstead. Felstead's son, The Buzzard, later stood at
stud in Australia. The wheel of history turned full circle when two
of The Buzzard's offspring, Old Rowley and Rainbird, each won the
Melbourne Cup, in 1940 and 1945, respectively.
Carbine was also the grandsire of American champion Johren, the winner
of the 1918 Belmont Stakes. Johren received the honor of being given
the American Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year.
Statistics and contemporary assessments indicate that he was a dominant
Antipodean racehorse of the 19th century, and he still ranks with
such 20th-century Thoroughbreds as such as his descendants Nearco,
Northern Dancer, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Ballymoss, Shergar, Arkle,
Never Say Die, Mr. Prospector, Nasrullah, Nijinsky II (winner of the
UK Triple Crown), Royal Palace, Fort Marcy, Better Loosen Up, Sir
Ivor, Invasor, Phar Lap, Tulloch, Kingston Town and Bernborough in
terms of renown among turf historians.
Other post-World War Two horses with Carbine figuring in their pedigrees
have included the Melbourne Cup winners Rising Fast, Comic Court,
Rain Lover and Think Big. Modern-day descendants of Carbine are the
New Zealand mare Sunline and the British bred Makybe Diva, winner
of three Melbourne Cups. Modern day competitors Mine That Bird and
Rachel Alexandra have the pedigrees from Carbine on both their sire
and dam sides.
Carbine died at Welbeck on 10 June 1914. He had suffered a stroke
and was put down with a drug to end his suffering, according to the
horse's 'biographer', Grania Polliness. The Duke of Portland gave
his skeleton to the Melbourne Museum. Today it is displayed at the
Australian Racing Museum and Hall of Fame in Melbourne. Carbine's
combined record of documented success as both a racehorse and an international
sire is possibly unequalled by any other Australasian Thoroughbred.
| Tremando |
The
Tester |
Saccharometer |
Sweetmeat |
| Defamation |
| Lady
Abbess |
Surplice |
| Lady Sarah |
| Agitation |
Orest |
Orestes |
| Lady Louisa |
| Emotion |
Alarm |
| Dinah |
| Trishna |
The Drummer |
Rataplan |
The Baron |
| Pocahontas |
| My
Niece |
Cowl |
| Vanity |
| Colima |
Brigadier |
King
John |
| Curse Royal |
| Ghiva |
Velocity |
| Atalanta |
Race
Record For Carbine
WON
16-Dec-1887 Canterbury (NZ) Hopeful Stakes
5 f.
WON 1-Jan-1888 Canterbury
(NZ) Middle Park Stakes 6 f.
WON 22-Feb-1888 Dunedin (NZ) Champagne
Stakes 6 f.
WON 2-Apr-1888 Canterbury
(NZ) Champagne Stakes 6 f.
WON 3-Apr-1888 Canterbury
(NZ) Challenge Stakes 6 f.
WON 8-Nov-1888 Flemington Flying
Stakes 7 f.
WON 10-Nov-1888 Flemington Foal Stakes
10 f.
WON 7-Mar-1889 Flemington
Champion Stakes 24 f.
WON 9-Mar-1889 Flemington
All Aged Stakes 8 f.
WON 9-Mar-1889 Flemington
Loch Plate 16 f.
WON 24-Apr-1889 Randwick Sydney
Cup 16 f.
WON 25-Apr-1889 Randwick All-Aged
Stakes 8 f.
WON 25-Apr-1889 Randwick Cumberland Stakes
16 f.
WON 27-Apr-1889 Randwick AJC Plate 24
f.
WON 7-Nov-1889 Flemington Flying
Stakes 7 f.
WON 1-Mar-1890 Flemington Essendon
Stakes 10-1/2 f.
WON 8-Mar-1890 Flemington All-Aged
Stakes 8 f.
WON 8-Mar-1890 Flemington Loch
Plate 16 f.
WON 5-Apr-1890 Randwick
Autumn Stakes 12 f.
WON 7-Apr-1890 Randwick
Sydney
Cup 16 f.
WON 10-Apr-1890 Randwick All-Aged
Stakes 8 f.
WON 10-Apr-1890 Randwick Cumberland
Stakes 16 f.
WON 12-Apr-1890 Randwick AJC Plate 24
f.
WON 13-Set-1890 Randwick Spring Stakes
12 f.
WON 18-Set-1890 Randwick Craven
Plate 10 f.
WON 1-Nov-1890 Flemington Melbourne
Stakes 10 f.
WON 4-Nov-1890 Flemington Melbourne
Cup 16 f.
WON 28-Feb-1891 Flemington Essendon Stakes
10-1/2 f.
WON 5-Mar-1891 Flemington
Champion Stakes 24 f.
WON 7-Mar-1891 Flemington
All-Aged
Stakes 8 f.
WON 28-Mar-1891 Randwick Autumn Stakes 12
f.
WON 2-Apr-1891 Randwick
Cumberland Stakes 16 f.
WON 4-Apr-1891 Randwick
AJC Plate 24 f.
Breeder : the Auckland Stud
Company, Sylvia Park, Auckland, NZ
Owner : Dan O'Brien (NZ)
then Donald Wallace
Trainer : Dan O'Brien (NZ), then
Walter Hickenbotham
Jockeys (wins): Mick O'Brien (16) Bob Ramage (10) Bob Derritt (5)
and White (2)
