“Darebin, the winner of the blue ribbon of the Victorian turf, of whom our artist has drawn a very correct likeness, is a brown colt, of great substance, but slightly deficient in quality, by the imported horse Peer, from the New Zealand mare Lurline, who was one of the best and gamest horses that ever trod a racecourse. The colt was bred by Mr. Samuel Gardiner, of Bundoora Park, and was sold as a yearling to Mr. W. E. Dakin for two Tasmanian gentlemen, one of whom owned Darriwell when he won the Melbourne Cup. Darebin ran several times as a two-year-old, but was only successful once, viz., at the Adelaide meeting, when he won the Two-year-old Handicap, carrying 8st. 101b. He has been trained for all his engagements by Mr. F. F. Dakin, who brought him to the post for the Derby in splendid condition, and to tho skilful care of that gentleman is due the success of the horse. Darebin is engaged in all the important weight-for-age races during the season”.
Darebin later went on to win the Sydney Cup (1883) and Adelaide St. Leger (1882).
His Sydney Cup victory in 1883 was a bitter-sweet weekend for Samuel Gardiner. While in Sydney to watch the horse that he bred take out was arguably at the time Australia’s second most important race, he received a cable from Melbourne advising him that his imported stallion Tubal Cain had died suddenly at Bundoora Park
Darebin was later retired to stud and proved a useful sire locally, his best offspring being The Australian Peer, (V.R.C. Derby, Sydney Cup and many Weight-For-Age races).
After a brief stint at stud in Queensland, Darebin became the first Australian sire to be exported to the United States where he produced many good winners, but is best remembered as the sire of Emma C, the dam of one of America’s leading stallions, Commando, who in turn fathered another great racehorse and sire, Man o’War (winner of 20 of 21 races and in two separate polls in 1999, voted the best American racehorse of the twentieth century)
