Lot 98: Martin Stainforth , British active late 19th/early 20th Century CARBINE Gouache on paper

Signed lower right; bears the inscription 'Carbine/ Musket - Mersey/ Melbourne Cup 5.11.1890. 2 Miles./ 39 Starters. 10st. 5lbs. Time 3m.38 ¼ secs./ The Greatest Event in Australian Sport' on the mount, the mount painted by the artist; bears the inscription 'Carbine at 7 years/ Musket, Imp...Mursey, Imp. to Australia/ Winner of £29,629. Sire in Australia of ,/ Wallace, La Carbine, etc. Exported to England, 1895/ where her sired Spearmint, Greatorex, Fowling/ Piece, Died at Welbeck England, 1914./ painted for the late Duke of Portland./ The Duke paid £13.000 for him,/ his son, Spearmint, won the English derby, 1906./ whose son Spion Kop, won the Derby in 1920. painted by, Martin Stainforth' on label on the reverse Gouache on paper

28.2 by 35 cm

Hotel Breslin, New York (label on the reverse)
Private collection, New South Wales

Carbine was a bay horse bred in New Zealand in 1885 by Musket from Mersey. Arguably the greatest racehorse/sire ever bred in the Southern Hemisphere he raced forty-three times for thirty-three wins and nine placings over the years 1889-1891. Owned by Donald Wallace and trained by Walter Hickenbotham, Carbine won the 1890 Melbourne Cup carrying the greatest ever winning weight (66kgs) in the largest field (39 starters) and went on to win successive Sydney Cups between 1889-90. Carbine then stood in England where he sired the 1906 English Derby winner Spearmint and through whose daughter Catnip Carbine's name lives on strongly in modern thoroughbred pedigrees.
Carbine was one of the inaugural five thoroughbreds inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.