First staged in 1886, the Eclipse Stakes is the oldest 10-furlong Group One contest in the racing calendar and is named after the sport’s first superstar racehorse.
Eclipse was born on the night of a great eclipse in March 1764 and was bred by the Duke of Cumberland, who sadly died the following year.
At the Duke’s bloodstock dispersal sale in 1765, Eclipse was bought by a Smithfield meat salesman called William Wildman for 75 or 80 guineas, depending on which report you read.
Eclipse was a grandson of the Darley Arabian, one of the founding stallions of the modern thoroughbred. He was a massive horse, chestnut in colour, with a white stocking on his off-hind leg. He was also very difficult to handle and Wildman considered having him gelded.
If he had gone ahead with this operation, thoroughbred racing and breeding would have lost one of the most important influences on the breed and its subsequent development.
This year Sandown Park celebrates its 150th year as a racecourse
Eclipse did not race until he was five but then went through his career unbeaten in 18 races, although nine of these were walk-overs, so frightened were potential opponents of taking him on.
Early in his career, he caught the attention of legendary Irish soldier and gambler Colonel Dennis O’Kelly. He wagered and won on the great horse and purchased a half-share in him from Wildman for 650 guineas in 1769. He would eventually buy the other half for 1,000 guineas, the price being decided, so it is believed, by the outcome of a game of chance.
When he retired, Eclipse became a hugely successful stallion, with three of the first five Epsom Derby winners being sons of his. Almost all great horses since then can trace their lineage back to him.
Furthermore, by 1907, 82 of the 127 Derby winners were direct descendants of the great horse.
Theo Taunton, in Famous Racehorses (1895), wrote: “(Eclipse) possessed speed, stride, ability to carry weight, strength of wind and power of endurance never surpassed, if equalled.”
He also owned something that all great racehorses need: the will to win.
Since his death, aged 24 on 27 February 1789, his skeleton has been reassembled and now stands in the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket. Examination of his body revealed that his heart weighed an incredible 14 pounds.
Click on this link for Bar One Racing’s prices on Saturday’s Eclipse Stakes
On Saturday, the Eclipse Stakes has the following six runners…
1 – OMBUDSMAN – An impressive winner of the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot last time out, he’s a warm favourite for Saturday’s race. He is trained by John and Thady Gosden. John has so far been involved with four Eclipse Stakes winners – Nathaniel (2012), Golden Horn (2015), Roaring Lion (2018) and Enable (2019).
Ombudsman storms to victory in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot
2 – SOSIE – Trained in France by Andre Fabre, he has won four of his last five races, including the nine-furlong Group One Prix d’Ispahan at Paris-Longchamp on May 25th. France has won the race twice: in 1949 with Djeddah and in 2022 with Vadeni.
3 –CAMILLE PISSARRO – This season’s French Derby winner, who relished the step up in trip in winning that French Classic last time out. He is one of two runners for Ireland’s champion trainer Aidan O’Brien, who has won the Eclipse a record eight times.
4 – DELACROIX – Aidan O’Brien’s colt failed to get competitive when stepped up in trip for the 12-furlong Epsom Derby last time, where he was sent off as the 2/1 favourite, but had earlier won the Group 3 Derby Trial and Group 3 Ballysax Stakes over 10 furlongs at Leopardstown. Can he get things back on track at Sandown?
5 – HOTAZHELL – He won the Group One Futurity Stakes at Doncaster on his last run last season, where he beat Delacroix by a nose, and has had only one run since then, when third to Fields Of Gold in the Irish 2,000 Guineas. He will be stepping up to 10 furlongs for the first time on Saturday.
6 – RULING COURT – This season’s English 2,000 Guineas winner finished third to Fields Of Gold in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot last time over one mile, but connections have felt for a long time that he would be in his element over 10 furlongs. Saturday will tell us more.
It’s a superb line-up and, when you look back on the list of previous winners of the race since 1970 and see names such as Mill Reef, Brigadier Gerard, Sadler’s Wells, Pebbles, Mtoto, Dancing Brave, Nashwan, Pilsudski, Daylami, Giant’s Causeway, Hawk Wing, Sea The Stars, Roaring Lion, Enable, Paddington and City Of Troy then that’s just how it ought to be.
The £1,000,000 race is due off at 3.35pm on Saturday at Sandown Park.
Only one trainer has won the Eclipse three years in a row, Alec Taylor Jnr, the so-called Wizard of Manton, who sent out Buchan to win in 1919 and 1921 and Craig an Eran in 1921. Aidan O’Brien has won the last two Eclipses with Paddington (2023) and City Of Troy.
