The Big Book of Australian Racing Stories Page 10

  While in training for his four-year-old season Carbine cracked a heel so badly that he could not race that season without a special binding of beeswax and cloth and a modified bar shoe. This accounts for his poor start to the season: second in the Caulfield Stakes, third in the Melbourne (now the Mackinnon) Stakes, and a brave second to Bravo in the Melbourne Cup. Carrying 10 st (63.5 kg) to Bravo’s 8 st 7 lb (54 kg), Carbine’s hoof opened during the race and he was beaten a length by a son of Grand Flaneur.

  Two days later, with his hoof repaired, he won the Flying Stakes over 7 furlongs but, two days after that, he ran last in the Canterbury Plate over 2 miles when the binding on his hoof completely fell apart. It was the only unplaced run of his career.

  With a good rest and his hoof patched up again, Carbine returned to racing in March 1891 and won three of his four starts in Melbourne before heading to Sydney for the Autumn Carnival.

  As a four-year-old Carbine went one better than the previous year. This time he won five races at distances from 1 mile to 3 miles in seven days: the Autumn Stakes on 5 April; the Sydney Cup, carrying 9 st 9 lb (61.5 kg), on 7 April; the All-Aged Stakes and the Cumberland Stakes on 10 April; and the AJC Plate on 12 April.

  Carbine had now won seven races in succession, and would go on to win another eight before the sequence ended a year later, when he ran second in the All-Aged Stakes.

  Victories in the Spring Stakes and Craven Plate came after a five-month spell; then the horse the public called ‘Old Jack’ travelled back to Melbourne to win the Melbourne Stakes and race into immortality in the Melbourne Cup of 1890, carrying the biggest winning weight in history, 10 st 5 lb (66.5 kg).

  An account of that win by Nat Gould, ‘Cup Memories’, and a celebratory poem, ‘Carbine’s Melbourne Cup’, are in the Melbourne Cup section of this collection.

  Carbine raced seven more times, in the autumn of 1891, for six victories. His narrow defeat came in the All-Aged Stakes at Randwick. His hoof was so bad that day that shoes could not be fitted, so he raced without shoes and ran second to Marvel on a slippery wet track. Unperturbed, Walter Hickenbotham took Carbine back to his stall, persevered and finally managed to get shoes on the champion, who promptly went out a few races later and beat Marvel easily over 2 miles in the Cumberland Stakes.

  Nat Gould, who was there that day, explained Carbine’s lonely unplaced run:

  It was a wet day, and the ground was sticky. In the All Aged Stakes, a mile, Carbine ran without plates and could not obtain a hold. It was pitiable to see him floundering and not able to stretch out in his usual grand style. The same afternoon he met Marvel again in the Cumberland Stakes, two miles. This time Carbine ran in shoes. The race resolved itself into a gallop over the last mile, which was all in favour of Marvel’s racing style. Carbine, however, beat him easily, and I think there is no doubt he would have won the other race had he had shoes on.

  Carbine then went for a spell with the intention of being trained for the 1891 Melbourne Cup, in spite of being given 11 st (70 kg) by the VRC handicapper.

  In early training Carbine injured his hoof again and suffered ligament damage, so it was decided he would stand a season at stud and perhaps return to racing in the autumn. However, the stud fee of 200 guineas was more than three times that of any other horse in Australia, and there was a stock market crash and a Depression looming; consequently Carbine served just three mares in 1891. Two foals survived to race and one of them, from a mare named Melodious, was Wallace, who would prove to be Carbine’s best-performed Australian son and a huge success at stud.

  It became apparent that Carbine’s racing days were over and a lucrative offer—reputed to be more than £20,000—was made for him to stand at stud in America.

  Donald Wallace wanted him to stay in Australia, however, and he stood four seasons at Wallace’s stud near Bacchus Marsh, northwest of Melbourne, and sired the winners of 208 races, including twelve stakes winners.

  His first crop included Wallace, who won the Caulfield Guineas, VRC Derby, C.B. Fisher Plate, Sydney Cup and more, before retiring to stud himself, to sire the winners of 949 races, including two Melbourne Cup winners in Kingsburgh and Patrobas, the great stayer Trafalgar and seven derby winners.

  Carbine also sired Amberlite, who became, in 1897, the first horse to win the Caulfield Cup, AJC Derby and VRC Derby in the same year; and La Carabine, winner of an Australian Cup, Sydney Cup and two AJC Plates.

  As the Depression hit and the drought worsened in the early 1890s, Donald Wallace’s fortunes slumped drastically and he decided to sell all his horses in a dispersal sale in 1895.

  The Duke of Portland, who was looking for a stallion with a quiet temperament as an outcross to mares from his brilliant but fiery champion stallion St Simon, bought Carbine for 13,000 guineas to stand at Welbeck Stud in England. Carbine was as placid as St Simon was highly strung.

  Ten thousand people came to the docks to say goodbye to ‘Old Jack’ as the steamship Orizaba pulled out of Port Melbourne.

  Carbine survived the trip, and an emergency stomach operation in Colombo, and was able to live in his new home, with its soft English ground, without wearing shoes. A special device was sent with the great horse to England. It was a special ‘umbrella hat’ to keep the rain and snow off his ears. ‘Old Jack’ hated rain on his ears and would run and hide from rain. Walter Hickenbotham often had to take his umbrella to the races and cover Carbine’s ears as he went onto the track. He also used the umbrella to get the lethargic stallion moving towards the barrier by opening and closing it rapidly in his face until he broke into a trot.

  In spite of being only ‘second fiddle’ sire at Welbeck, Carbine finished fourth on the list of successful sires in the UK in 1902 and 1906, and sired 138 winners and 253 second-placegetters there.

  Carbine’s son Spearmint won the 1906 Epsom Derby and was also a great success at stud. Spearmint’s progeny won 93 races and included derby winner and great sire Spion Kop. Spearmint also sired the broodmares Catnip and Plucky Liege, which means that all horses with Nearco, Nasrullah and Northern Dancer lines trace back to Carbine, as do all progeny of Sir Gallahad III, the champion son of Plucky Liege.

  Sir Gallahad III raced with great success in France and was the sire of three Kentucky Derby winners. He was the most influential stallion in the USA in the twentieth century, being leading sire in 1930, 1933, 1934 and 1940, and leading broodmare sire in North America in 1939, then from 1943 to 1952, and again in 1955.

  Also out of Plucky Liege was the great Epsom Derby winner Bois Roussel, who started only three times for two wins and a third; his son, Delville Wood, was five times champion sire of Australia.

  Carbine died in 1914 at the ripe old age of 29 and his skeleton is on display at the Australian Racing Museum at Caulfield. Phar Lap was Carbine’s great-great-grandson and had Musket on both sides of his pedigree. Sunline had Carbine on both sides of her pedigree, and Kingston Town had multiple Carbine and St Simon bloodlines. Carbine’s blood has been present in the pedigrees of more than 50 Melbourne Cup winners, including Makybe Diva.

  Not bad for a horse who couldn’t get his shoes on!

  As far as I am concerned, and as far as Australian racing is concerned, Carbine was the greatest, and the most influential, racehorse that ever lived.

  FAREWELL ‘OLD JACK’

  NAT GOULD

  When the great racing writer and novelist Nat Gould returned to Britain in 1895, after his eleven years in Australia, he and his family travelled on the same ship as Carbine, who was on his way to stand at stud at Welbeck Abbey in England.

  ***

  I saw Carbine win all his big races, and when he was bought by the Duke of Portland for thirteen thousand pounds, I came to London in the same vessel he was on, the Orient liner RMS Orizaba.

  A few particulars about Carbine’s voyage may be of interest.

  The horse did not come on board until we reached Melbourne.

  Mr Ernest Day, who had charge for him for the Duke, was
naturally very anxious to get the horse shipped quietly and a notice appeared in the Evening Herald, on Thursday, stating Carbine would be shipped on Saturday morning.

  As I happened to have a letter in my pocket stating he would come on board on Good Friday, I smiled. Evidently the paragraph had been inspired to put people off the scent. I was on board when the ‘hero of a hundred fights’ came to the pier. Carbine was accompanied by one of his sons, a colt out of Novelette, who had been named Lederderg by the Duke of Portland, and who was alongside of him.

  ‘Old Jack’ at first seemed inclined to remain ashore. Mr Day endeavoured to persuade him to step onto the gangway, but he declined the invitation. A handful of clover was given him, which he quietly munched, then he looked at the crowd as much as to say, ‘What do you think of me?’

  Cunningham, the man who had had charge of Carbine at the stud, and who came home with the horses, then went to the rescue. No sooner did Carbine see him coming along the gangway than he stretched out his neck and put one foot forward. Cunningham spoke to him, and then, quietly pulling the head-stall, Carbine followed him like a lamb.

  The horse felt his footing carefully all along the gangway and crouched down when he felt the boards creak under him; but he never made the least objection to following his leader. Once in his box Carbine commenced to munch hay quietly, as though a trip to England was an everyday occurrence with him.

  The colt took more trouble to get on board, but once in his box he also settled down like an old horse. Not knowing the time Carbine was to go on board, there was not a great crowd there, but on Saturday morning (13 April 1895) the people came down in hundreds to have a last peep at the champion.

  When it was found Carbine had been put on board the day before, the crowd commenced to see they had been sold, but they were determined not to be done out of a sight of him. I never saw a more determined mass of people than Carbine’s admirers. They crushed up the gangway and jammed up in front of his box, regardless of torn clothes and pickpockets, and there were plenty of the latter about, or what looked like them.

  Hundreds of people caught a passing glimpse of Carbine as he stood quietly eating in his box. It was their last sight of ‘Old Jack’, and there were many present who had won money over him in that memorable Melbourne Cup.

  No horse that ever ran in Australia was a greater idol with the public than Carbine, and the pier was crowded with his admirers long before the boat sailed.

  When we cast off from Sandridge Pier there was a mighty burst of cheering, and cries of ‘Carbine’ rent the air. I was near the horse’s box at the time with Mr Day, and ‘Old Jack’ pricked up his ears and raised his splendid head at the sound, as though he fancied there was another race to be run.

  A beautiful wreath was sent on board for Carbine. It was in the shape of a horseshoe, and had Donald Wallace’s colours on, and written on a card attached to it, ‘For dear old Carbine; bon voyage.’ Had Carbine got hold of that wreath, I am afraid he would have made short work of it.

  Mr Day had several chats with me during the voyage. He is a most entertaining man, and had travelled all over the world in charge of horses. He even took a consignment of horses to India for the Ameer of Afghanistan, and safely conveyed them through the famous Khyber Pass. One morning I went with Mr Day to see Carbine have his breakfast. I pulled a few stalks of green clover out of the bundle and put them between my teeth. ‘Old Jack’ put his nose between the bars and took them as gently as though he had been my particular pal all his life. I never saw such a quiet, docile stallion, and throughout the voyage the horse behaved splendidly.

  At Colombo Carbine had a narrow escape. He was very ill, and Mr Day had to perform an operation on him, which he did successfully, and no man could have paid more attention to the horse than he did. Cunningham held the horse’s head during the operation, and Mr Day happening to look up saw blood running down his sleeve. On asking what was the matter, Cunningham said, ‘Oh nothing; Old Jack had a bite at my arm.’

  With two such attendants, and on board a steady boat as the Orizaba undoubtedly is, Carbine finally arrived safely in England.

  At Welbeck, which is also home to the great St Simon, Carbine will be mated with some of the best mares in the world, and he ought to get good stock from St Simon mares. I cannot conclude from this chapter in a more fitting manner than by quoting a portion of a letter I received from Mr W. Forrester after arriving back in England. Dated Warwick Farm, 6 May. He writes:

  So you are a mate of Carbine’s. Notwithstanding my thinking him the greatest racehorse the world has ever seen, I wish he had never been foaled, for as you know he cut me out of £28,400 in the Melbourne Cup. Need I say what a surprise, as I thought I could not lose with Highborn carrying so little weight, but old Carbine, with his 10 stone 5 pounds, beat me badly.

  Had I won that day I feel sure I would have cleared £50,000 over the meeting, as there were Correze and Muriel in the VRC and Free Handicaps that I looked upon as the best of good things, but I was in hobbles and, without a stake, could not have a dash.

  If my mare Rosary has a colt foal by the old horse it may be a second Carbine and I am glad to tell you she is in foal to him, and should it face the starter it will be known as Fatal Bullet.

  I have not the slightest doubt he will do well with the Duke of Portland’s mares if they give him plenty of work and do not keep him stalled up and keep the shoes off him as much as possible. Most of a stallion’s trouble in old age is with the feet, caused by being continually shod. We let them live down here without shoes on. Why not in old England?

  A NICE LITTLE MARE BY TRENTON

  JIM HAYNES

  There was once a filly that was bred at St Albans Stud at Geelong in 1896 by Mr W. Wilson. Her sire was Trenton, a son of Musket, who was also sire of the mighty Carbine.

  She was trialled as a two-year-old and showed ability before a track accident caused her to be returned to the paddock. She suffered from lameness through her two-year-old and three-year-old seasons and remained almost forgotten in the paddock at St Albans.

  She would almost certainly have never raced but for the death of her owner early in 1900. At the dispersal sale after Wilson’s death, she was described in the catalogue as ‘a nice little mare by Trenton that should be worth a place in any Stud’. Although she was still a three-year-old filly at the time, it is obvious that all and sundry considered her only value to be as a broodmare, not on the racetrack.

  Luckily, however, there was one man who knew better. Les MacDonald was a former manager of St Albans and he obviously knew a few things about the filly that others bidding at the sale didn’t. He commissioned Mr Neil Campbell to make the purchase for him at 310 guineas, which was a fair amount for an unraced though well-bred filly. In hindsight it was the bargain of a lifetime.

  She was to become the first female thoroughbred to achieve the position of ‘Australia’s most loved racehorse’. Her name was Wakeful.

  It is true that two fillies, Briseis and Auraria, had won the Melbourne Cup in its first four decades and been much admired by the racing public, but neither of them achieved the true champion status and public adoration that was to be the lot of the mighty Wakeful. Indeed, the phrase ‘best since Wakeful’ was used by racing men all through the twentieth century to describe great racing mares and fillies. The phrase ‘better than Wakeful’, however, was one you would never have heard used in that time, except in jest.

  Briseis and Auraria were champion three-year-old fillies whose careers were finished at four. Wakeful, on the other hand, did not race at all until her fifth year, when she won the Oakleigh Plate as a maiden at her third start.

  Wakeful’s story is a fascinating one, full of coincidence, good luck, victory in adversity and strange twists of fate, some of which occurred long before she was even foaled. Wakeful was cleverly named: her dam was Insomnia, who was by the champion that survived the huge storm at sea in 1876, Robinson Crusoe, a great racehorse and sire whose amazing story appears ear
lier in this section (‘The Shipwreck Horse’).

  It was the hand of fate that enabled Wakeful’s grandsire to survive against all odds, and it was another series of coincidences that led to the great mare having any sort of career on the track at all.

  Wakeful was a powerfully built bay mare. She stood 15.2 hands, a good size for a mare in those days, and her near-perfect action was marred slightly by some awkwardness in her forelegs. She suffered from bouts of lameness all her life, which may account for the odd anomalies in consistency in her career and her occasional, uncharacteristic minor placings.

  Trained at Mordialloc in Victoria by Hugh Munro, father of great jockeys Jim and Darby, Wakeful began her racing career as a four-year-old, running second over 5 furlongs at Caulfield. At her second start she raced poorly over 6 furlongs at Flemington, finishing twentieth and pulling up lame once again. She was immediately sent back to the paddock.

  Four months later many things had changed. Australia had become a nation on 1 January 1901, and Wakeful had recovered from her lameness and was back at Munro’s stables and running amazing times on the training track.

  What occurred next must be considered one of the most amazing racing feats, not to mention betting coups, of all time. Wakeful, a maiden galloper rising five, won the Oakleigh Plate and took half a second off the race record. Not only did she win one of the nation’s premier sprint races, she started at 4 to 1 favourite following a huge betting plunge by her owner Les MacDonald.

  The mare was then given the maximum penalty of 10 pounds (4.5 kg) for the VRC Newmarket Handicap. Even with this penalty she carried the relatively light weight of 7 st 6 lb (47 kg) and won easily, once again backed in to start favourite at 5 to 2.