Carbine (horse)
Encyclopedia
Carbine was an outstanding New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 bred Thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 racehorse, who competed in New Zealand and later Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. During his racing career he won 30 stakes or principal races. 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
New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame
The New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame is an organization created to recognise and honour those whose achievements have enriched the New Zealand Horse racing industry...

 and the Australian Racing Hall of Fame
Australian Racing Hall of Fame
The Australian Racing Hall of Fame is part of the Australian Racing Museum which documents and honours the horseracing legends of Australia. The museum officially opened in 1981 and created the Hall of Fame in 2000....

.

Breeding

Carbine was foaled at Sylvia Park Stud near Auckland, New Zealand on 18 September 1885. He was a bay stallion
Stallion
A Stallion is a male horse.Stallion may also refer to:* Stallion , an American pop rock group* Stallion , a figure in the Gobot toyline* Stallion , a character in the console role-playing game series...

 by the English Ascot Stakes winner and successful sire Musket
Musket (horse)
Musket was an English-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and a Leading sire in Australia and New Zealand.-Breeding:He was sired by Toxophilite, his dam was a bay mare who was a half-sister to General Peel’s dam, by West Australian from Brown Bess by Camel...

 out of the imported mare Mersey (GB) by Knowsley. Carbine was inbred
Inbreeding
Inbreeding is the reproduction from the mating of two genetically related parents. Inbreeding results in increased homozygosity, which can increase the chances of offspring being affected by recessive or deleterious traits. This generally leads to a decreased fitness of a population, which is...

 to Brown Bess in the third and fourth generations. He was a half-brother to the stakes winning stallion, Carnage, winner of the VRC Victoria Derby
Victoria Derby
The Victoria Derby is an Australian Thoroughbred horse race held annually on the first day of Melbourne's annual Spring Racing Carnival, Victorian Derby Day, held at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. A Group One race for three-year-old horses, it is raced on a left-handed turf course at a...

, AJC Champagne Stakes
Champagne Stakes
Champagne Stakes may refer to:*Champagne Stakes , a horse race held at Randwick Racecourse in Australia*Champagne Stakes , a horse race held at Doncaster Racecourse in Great Britain...

, VRC Spring Stakes and VRC Essendon Stakes. When fully mature, Carbine stood about 16 hands 1 inch in height, possessed good conformation and temperament, although he had some foibles.

Racing career

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 undefeated 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
Sydney Cup
The Sydney Cup is an Australian horse race, held for Thoroughbred horses and run over 3200 metres. It is run every year at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, New South Wales in April/May...

 of 2 miles (3,220 metres) 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 jockey
Jockey
A jockey is an athlete who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing.-Etymology:...

s.) 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
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

 and Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

.

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
Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major Thoroughbred horse race. Marketed as "the race that stops a nation", it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world, and one of the richest turf races...

 was noteworthy. He set a weight-carrying record of 10 st 5 lb (66 kg) in the Cup, defeating 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.

Stud record

Carbine proved his stud potential the following year, 1892, by siring a colt named Wallace, who went on to become an exceptionally good racehorse and sire. Wallace was considered the best of Carbine's Australian-bred progeny. He won the VATC Caulfield Guineas
Caulfield Guineas
The Caulfield Guineas is a Melbourne Racing Club Australian Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race held over 1600 metres at set weights for three-year-old horses, held annually on the second Saturday in October and forms part of the Spring Carnival at Caulfield Racecourse. Total prize money is A$1 million...

, Victoria Derby
Victoria Derby
The Victoria Derby is an Australian Thoroughbred horse race held annually on the first day of Melbourne's annual Spring Racing Carnival, Victorian Derby Day, held at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. A Group One race for three-year-old horses, it is raced on a left-handed turf course at a...

, Sydney Cup
Sydney Cup
The Sydney Cup is an Australian horse race, held for Thoroughbred horses and run over 3200 metres. It is run every year at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, New South Wales in April/May...

 and other good races. Despite limited stud opportunities Wallace was the Leading sire in Australia
Leading sire in Australia
The list below shows the leading sire of Thoroughbred racehorses in Australia for each season since 1883–84. This is determined by the amount of prize money won by the sire's progeny during the season.----- References :* -See also:...

 in the 1915/16 season. Wallace also finished second three times and third three times on the leading 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 (won Victoria Derby
Victoria Derby
The Victoria Derby is an Australian Thoroughbred horse race held annually on the first day of Melbourne's annual Spring Racing Carnival, Victorian Derby Day, held at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. A Group One race for three-year-old horses, it is raced on a left-handed turf course at a...

 and Caulfield Cup
Caulfield Cup
The Caulfield Cup, one of Australia's richest Thoroughbred horse races and the richest of its type in the world is held annually by the Melbourne Racing Club. The race is a handicap like the Melbourne Cup, which means that horses that compete in the Caulfield Cup are capable of running on the...

 etc.) and La Carabine (Sydney Cup
Sydney Cup
The Sydney Cup is an Australian horse race, held for Thoroughbred horses and run over 3200 metres. It is run every year at Randwick Racecourse in Sydney, New South Wales in April/May...

 and VRC Australian Cup etc.).

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
Welbeck Abbey
Welbeck Abbey near Clumber Park in North Nottinghamshire was the principal abbey of the Premonstratensian order in England and later the principal residence of the Dukes of Portland.-Monastic period:...

 where he was the second stud sire to the outstanding St. Simon, who covered the best mares. A son of Carbine, Greatorex, was a minor race winner in England before he was exported to South Africa, where he became a leading sire on ten occasions and had an impact on bloodlines there. Carbine sired Spearmint
Spearmint (horse)
Spearmint was a classic winning English Thoroughbred racehorse and a good sire. He sired classic winners in three countries: Great Britain, Ireland and the United States. His daughters produced the winners of eight classic races...

, the 1906 Epsom Derby
Epsom Derby
The Derby Stakes, popularly known as The Derby, internationally as the Epsom Derby, and under its present sponsor as the Investec Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies...

 and 1906 Grand Prix de Paris
Grand Prix de Paris
The Grand Prix de Paris is a Group 1 flat horse race in France open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Longchamp over a distance of 2,400 metres , and it is scheduled to take place each year in July.-History:...

 winner. Spearmint in turn sired Spion Kop, who also won the Epsom 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. Spearmint was the sire of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 three-year-old champion, Johren
Johren
Johren was a Thoroughbred racehorse who competed in the United States. His most important win came in the 1918 Belmont Stakes.-Background:...

, foaled in 1915 in England and exported to America as a yearling. Johren was the winner of the 1918 Belmont Stakes
Belmont Stakes
The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes Thoroughbred horse race held every June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is a 1.5-mile horse race, open to three year old Thoroughbreds. Colts and geldings carry a weight of 126 pounds ; fillies carry 121 pounds...

 and was awarded the American Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year
Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year
The American Award for Horse of the Year is the highest honor given in American thoroughbred horse racing. It has been awarded since 1887 to the horse, irrespective of age, whose performance during the racing year is deemed the most outstanding....

.

Over half of the 65 Melbourne Cup winners from 1914 to 1978 were descendants of Carbine, including Comic Court
Comic Court
Comic Court was a most versatile post-war Australian bred Thoroughbred racehorse who set race records at distances of 6 furlongs and 2 miles...

, Phar Lap
Phar Lap
Phar Lap was a champion Thoroughbred racehorse whose achievements captured the public's imagination during the early years of the Great Depression. Foaled in New Zealand, he was trained and raced in Australia. Phar Lap dominated Australian racing during a distinguished career, winning a Melbourne...

, Rising Fast
Rising Fast
Rising Fast was an outstanding New Zealand-bred Thoroughbred racehorse. In 1954 he became the only horse in history to win the Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate races in the same season - the Spring Grand Slam - and since that time no Melbourne Cup winner has performed such a feat...

, Rain Lover
Rain Lover
Rain Lover was a champion Australian Thoroughbred racehorse. He was one of the very few horses to win the Melbourne Cup more than once. Rain Lover was sired by the good racehorse, Latin Lover his dam Rain Spot was by Valognes .He was owned and bred by Clifford A. Reid, who won the 1945 Melbourne...

 and Think Big
Think Big
The New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon and his New Zealand National Party government in the early 1980s sponsored Think Big as an interventionist state economic strategy. The Think Big schemes saw the government borrow heavily overseas, running up a large external deficit, and using the...

. 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 his descendants Danzig, Nearco
Nearco
Nearco was an Italian bred Thoroughbred racehorse described by Thoroughbred Heritage as "one of the greatest racehorses of the Twentieth Century" and "one of the most important sires of the century." He was not only unbeaten, winning 14 races at distances from 5 furlongs to 1 mile 7 furlongs ,...

, Northern Dancer
Northern Dancer
Northern Dancer was a Canadian-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and the most successful sire of the 20th Century. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association calls him "one of the most influential sires in Thoroughbred history"....

, Mr. Prospector
Mr. Prospector
Mr. Prospector was a thoroughbred racehorse foaled in Kentucky, whose descendants have been dominant in the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. He won half of his 14 career races.-Background:...

, Nasrullah, Nijinsky II
Nijinsky II
The racehorse Nijinsky was one of the greatest horses in Thoroughbred horse-racing history. He won the U.K. Triple Crown of racing. Retired to stud he became the Leading sire in Great Britain & Ireland and the Leading broodmare sire in North America.He was bred at E. P...

 (winner of the UK Triple Crown), Royal Charger
Royal Charger
Royal Charger was a British Thoroughbred racehorse who was successful in racing but even more so as a sire. He was the son of the very important sire Nearco.-Racing career:As a three-year-old, Royal Charger finished third in the 2000 Guineas...

 and Royal Palace
Royal Palace (horse)
Royal Palace was a British Thoroughbred racehorse. In 1967 he won the first two legs of the Triple Crown, the 2000 Guineas and the Epsom Derby...

 (who have established their own sire-lines) in terms of renown among turf historians.

The descendants of Carbine include eight of the nine horses to earn $10,000,000 or more in stakes wins. These horses are Deep Impact, Makybe Diva
Makybe Diva
Makybe Diva is a British-bred, Australian-trained Thoroughbred who became the first racehorse to win the famed Melbourne Cup on three occasions: 2003, 2004, and 2005. In 2005, she also won the Cox Plate. Makybe Diva is the highest stakes-earner in Australasian horse racing history, with winnings...

, Narita Brian
Narita Brian
Narita Brian was a Japanese racehorse, sired by Brian's Time, dammed by Pacificus, who in turn was the daughter of Northern Dancer....

, Sunline
Sunline
Sunline was a New Zealand bred Thoroughbred racehorse who was the world's highest earning racemare of her time, competing on 48 occasions for 32 wins, 9 seconds and 3 thirds to earn A$11,351,607. She won races in three different countries, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. She won successive...

, Symboli Kris S
Symboli Kris S
Symboli Kris S is a retired Japanese Thoroughbred race horse. He was voted Japanese Horse of the Year in 2002 and 2003. He was retired at the end of 2003 and was syndicated for $15-million. He stands at stud at Shadai Stallion Station on the island of Hokkaido in Japan.-References:**...

, T M Opera O
T M Opera O
T M Opera O was a Japanese thoroughbred racehorse, sired by Opera House, a son of Sadler's Wells, out of Once Wed, a daughter of Blushing Groom. T.M. Opera O was inducted into the Japan Racing Association Hall of Fame in 2004.T.M. Opera O was the world's all-time leading money-earner...

, Viva Pataca
Viva Pataca
Viva Pataca is a Thoroughbred racehorse. Bred by the Dukes of Devonshire and Roxburghe, he was out of the mare Comic and sired by English Group One winner, Marju...

  and Vodka
Vodka
Vodka , is a distilled beverage. It is composed primarily of water and ethanol with traces of impurities and flavorings. Vodka is made by the distillation of fermented substances such as grains, potatoes, or sometimes fruits....

. Modern day competitors Mine That Bird
Mine That Bird
Mine That Bird is a retired American racehorse. He is best known for being one of only nine geldings to win the Kentucky Derby, and the second gelding to win the race since 1929...

 and Rachel Alexandra
Rachel Alexandra
Rachel Alexandra is a retired American Thoroughbred filly racehorse and the 2009 Horse of the Year. She is renowned as the May 16, 2009 Preakness Stakes winner, the second jewel of the Triple Crown, the first filly to win the race in 85 years history...

 trace to Carbine through both their sire and dam.

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
Melbourne Museum
Melbourne Museum is located in the Carlton Gardens in Melbourne, Australia, adjacent the Royal Exhibition Building.It is the largest museum in the Southern Hemisphere, and is a venue of Museum Victoria, which also operates the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum.The museum has seven main...

. Today it is displayed at the Australian Racing Museum
Australian Racing Museum
The Australian Racing Museum is a horse racing museum in Melbourne, Australia dedicated to Thoroughbred horses, jockeys and trainers.It was first set up at Caulfield Racecourse in 1981 and closed on 30 August 2003. It then moved to Federation Square on Flinders Street. In October 2010 the 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.

Carbine had his portrait painted by the noted equine artist, Martin Stainforth
Martin Stainforth
Martin Frank Stainforth was a British-born artist best known for his portraits of Thoroughbred racehorses he painted in England and while living in Australia and the United States....

 and it was reproduced in Racehorses in Australia.

Tabulated pedigree

External links

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