October
DecemberWithout peer
It was delightful to read (9/12) about the days of Carbine, particularly the period in 1890 when he raced nine times in just 43 days for eight wins including the Melbourne and Sydney cups.
The letter from Pittsburgh Phil was spot on about his Melbourne Cup win carrying 66.5kg (a record that will never be beaten because the cup is now effectively a quality handicap).
He defeated the biggest field ever — 39 runners — untouched, by almost three lengths.
Mark Twain was impressed, and Les Carlyon (author of They’re Racing, covering the complete story of Australian champions) believes that he was possibly the greatest Cup winner ever, even taking into account Archer’s dual wins in 1861-62.
At the Flemington autumn carnival Carbine won the two feature races on the same day, then went to Sydney, where he also was a dual winner in a day, later winning his second Sydney Cup.
A table of his pedigree shows his descendants had 51 Melbourne Cup victories between 1914 and 1984.
During that 1890s period Carbine, after covering race distances totalling 15,200 metres, came out in a flying handicap over 1400 metres and won convincingly despite having an infected hoof held together with thread, beeswax and a bar shoe.
Last week’s letter referred to the other past greats Phar Lap and Tulloch as well as current champion Winx.
Yes, Phar Lap was a super champion and ranks alongside the postwar stars Bernborough,Tulloch and Winx and, to a slight lesser degree, Kingston Town.
Tulloch could have been the best of the lot if he hadn’t suffered the severe ailment that forced his lengthy spell. To come back and win cups with huge weights was quite remarkable.
I was fortunate to see Bernborough in 1946 win that magic Doomben 10,000/Cup double in the space of a week (with massive weights) before stringing together a series of 15 straight victories (yes, in the same year).
No other horse in the postwar years has ever matched his performance in such a short period, winning every weight-for-age feature then taking on the Caulfield Cup, also in 1946. On that day, he was quoted in the forthcoming Melbourne Cup at 6/4 despite being given the task of carrying 10 stone, 10 pounds (68kg).
Of course, we all know about his Caulfield Cup run, where he suffered four checks under the guidance of Athol Mulley then broke down at his next start.
Winx is no doubt the best mare produced in this same period and possibly of all time, and it’s only natural that she is now being kept for weight-for-age events.
We might wonder what she could have done in Melbourne and Caulfield Cups under handicap conditions. However, her couragous momentum during the past three years when asked to move is quite phenomenal.
Tingoora (Qld)