A missing link in the remarkable story of one of racing’s most famous horses was stashed away in a Port Campbell drawer.
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Brian Johnston, a collector of horse racing memorabilia, this week donated a price-less receipt documenting the purchase of super stallion Carbine at a New Zealand yearling sale in 1887 to the Australian Racing Museum and Hall of Fame.
Carbine, the 1890 Melbourne Cup winner, won 33 of his 43 starts and sired many champions.
Mr Johnston was quick to snap up a historic collection of Carbine memorabilia after family connections put it up for sale, but he was unaware of the significance of several items, including the receipt.
He said he wanted to share the valuable pieces with racing enthusiasts.
“Anything of Carbine’s is just so rare and I wanted it to be somewhere people could see it and it could be looked after,” he said.
“This is just such an important collection of him, the like of which has never been seen before.”
Among the collection is a 19th century photograph of the stallion framed alongside sire Musket and dam Mersey, a stopwatch dating back to his racing days and a framed drawing. But the jewel in the crown is the receipt.
“It’s invaluable for us,” Australian Racing Museum collections manager Alison Raaymakers said.
“Carbine is one of the icons of the sport. He was an inaugural hall of fame inductee and he features in the sire line of a huge percentage of Melbourne Cup winners.
“We’re about telling stories and this helps us tell Carbine’s story.”
The items will join other memorabilia already at the museum, including his 1890 Melbourne Cup trophy and trainer Walter Higginbotham’s umbrella that he would flap to urge on Carbine.
“We’ve got some really significant things in the collection and this becomes one of them, this is one of the treasures,” Mrs Raaymakers said.
The valuable receipt will eventually go on display, although not permanently because of its fragility.
“It’s worth many thousands of dollars. I wouldn’t like to put a value on it because for the racing museum monetary value, yes it’s important, and the trophies and the monuments are important, but the stories are what we’re collecting,” Mrs Raaymakers said.
Mr Johnston also loaned a valuable charcoal drawing of Phar Lap, who had Carbine bloodlines, completed by renowned artist James Lynwood Palmer in 1930.
Mr Johnston’s wife Margaret said it was pleasing to know the collection was now in safe hands. “I’d rather see it go somewhere where it will be looked after, rather than just sitting in a drawer,” she said.
