Eclipse (40 page)

Chapter 18

Blake,
George Stubbs and the Wide Creation
Cook,
Eclipse and O'Kelly
Egerton,
British Sporting and Animal Paintings
Egerton,
George Stubbs, Painter
Grego,
Rowlandson the Caricaturist
Lawrence,
The History and Delineation of the Horse
Noakes,
Sportsmen in a Landscape
The Sporting Magazine
(January 1794)

Chapter 19

Blake,
George Stubbs and the Wide Creation
Derby Day 200
Egerton,
George Stubbs, Painter
Longrigg,
The History of Horse Racing
Magee,
Ascot: The History
Mortimer,
The History of the Derby Stakes
Mortimer, Onslow and Willett,
Biographical Encyclopaedia of British Flat Racing
Noakes,
Sportsmen in a Landscape
Randall and Morris,
A Century of Champions
Thompson,
Newmarket: From James I to the Present Day
Willett,
The Classic Racehorse
Annual Register
(1844)
Pedigreequery.com TBHeritage.com
Victorian-cinema.net

Chapter 20

Church,
Eclipse: The Horse, the Race, the Awards
Lennox,
Northern Dancer
Longrigg,
The History of Horse Racing
Mortimer, Onslow and Willett,
Biographical Encyclopaedia of British Flat Racing
Pagones,
Dubai Millennium
Randall and Morris,
A Century of Champions
Guardian
(November 2005)
Observer
(October 2005)
Ascot.co.uk
Australian Government Culture and Recreation website/ Melbourne Cup
Horsesonly.com (Mariana Haun, ‘The X Factor')
National Museum of Australia website
SportingChronicle.com

Chapter 21

Black,
The Jockey Club and Its Founders
Church,
Eclipse: The Horse, the Race, the Awards
Clark,
A Short History of the Celebrated Race-horse Eclipse
Cook,
Eclipse and O'Kelly
Hall, ‘The Story of a Skeleton: Eclipse'
Sainbel,
Elements of Veterinary Art
Weinreb and Hibbert (eds),
The London Encyclopaedia
Wentworth,
Thoroughbred Racing Stock
The British Racehorse
(November 1963)
The Veterinary Record
(March 1991)
Royal Veterinary College website

When details differ, I have given the sources:

* Tuting and Fawconer,
The Sporting Calendar
(1769, 1770)
† B.Walker,
An Historical List of Horse-Matches, Plates and Prizes, Run for in Great
Britain and Ireland
(1769, 1770)

‡ Bracy Clark,
A Short History of the Celebrated Race-horse Eclipse
(1835)

§ William Pick,
An Authentic Historical Racing Calendar
(1785)

¶ John Orton,
Turf Annals of York and Doncaster
(1844)

1769

3 May, Epsom
. Noblemen and Gentlemen's Plate, for horses that have not won £30 (matches excepted). Four-mile heats. Five-year-olds (Eclipse, Gower, Trial), 8st* (8st 7lb†); six-year-olds (Chance, Plume), 9st 3lb; older horses, 9st 13lb.Winner, £50.

Heat 1:
1st Eclipse
(Mr Wildman); 2nd Gower (Mr Fortescue); 3rd Chance (Mr Castle); 4th Trial (Mr Jennings); 5th Plume (Mr Quick).

Heat 2:
1st Eclipse
; distanced Gower, Chance, Trial, Plume.

Betting: (heat 1) 1-4 Eclipse; (heat 2) 6-4, 5-4, evens Eclipse to distance field. (Jockey: John Oakley)

29 May, Ascot
. Noblemen and Gentlemen's Plate. Two-mile heats. Fouryear-olds, 8st 5lb; five-year-olds (Eclipse, Cream de Barbade), 9st 3lb. Winner, £50.

Heat 1:
1st Eclipse
(Mr Wildman); 2nd Cream de Barbade (Mr Fettyplace).

Heat 2:
1st Eclipse
; 2nd Cream de Barbade.

Betting: 1-8 Eclipse.

13 June, Winchester
. King's Plate. Four-mile heats. For six-year-olds; 12st (younger horses carry same weight). (Six-year-olds Slouch, Chigger, Juba, Caliban, Clanvil; five-year-old Eclipse.) Winner, 100 guineas.

Heat 1:
1st Eclipse
(Mr Wildman); 2nd Slouch (Mr Turner); 3rd Chigger (Duke of Grafton); 4th Juba (Mr Gott); distanced Caliban (Mr O'Kelly), Clanvil (Mr Bailey).

Heat 2:
1st Eclipse
; 2nd Slouch; 3rd Chigger; 4th Juba.

Betting: (heat 1) 5-4* (evens†) Eclipse; 5-2, 3-1* (2-1†) Caliban; 2-1, 3-1 Chigger; 5-1, 6-1* (4-1†) Slouch; (heat 2) 1-10 Eclipse.

15 June, Winchester
. City Plate. Four-mile heats. Five-year-olds (Eclipse) and six-year-olds; 10st; older horses, 10st 7lb.Winner, £50.

1st Eclipse
(Mr Wildman) walked over.

28 June, Salisbury
. King's Plate. Four-mile heats. For six-year-olds; 12st (younger horses carry same weight).Winner, 100 guineas.

1st Eclipse
(Mr Wildman) walked over.

29 June, Salisbury
. City Plate. Four-mile heats. 10st.Winner, silver bowl and 30 guineas.

Heat 1:
1st Eclipse
(Mr Wildman); 2nd Sulphur (Mr Fettyplace); distanced Forrester (Mr Taylor).

Heat 2:
1st Eclipse
; 2nd Sulphur.

Betting: 1-10* (1-8†) Eclipse.

25 July, Canterbury
. King's Plate. Four-mile heats. For six-year-olds; 12st* (12st 1lb†) (younger horses carry same weight).Winner, 100 guineas.

1st Eclipse
(Mr Wildman) walked over.

27 July, Lewes
. King's Plate. Four-mile heats. For six-year-olds; 12st (younger horses carry same weight). (Six-year-old Kingston; five-year-old Eclipse.) Winner, 100 guineas.

Heat 1:
1st Eclipse
(Mr Wildman); 2nd Kingston (Mr Strode).

Heat 2:
1st Eclipse
; 2nd Kingston. (Jockey: John Whiting‡)

19 September, Lichfield
. King's Plate. Three-mile heats. For five-yearolds; 8st 7lb.Winner, 100 guineas.

Heat 1:
1st Eclipse
(Mr Wildman); 2nd Tardy (Mr Freeth).

Heat 2:
1st Eclipse
; 2nd Tardy.

Betting: 1-7 Eclipse.

9 races, 9 wins, including 5 King's Plates. Prize money: £706.50.

1770

17 April, Newmarket
. Beacon Course (4 miles, 1 furlong, 138 yards). 8st 7lb.

Eclipse
(Mr Wildman) beat Bucephalus (Mr Wentworth). Winner, 1, 000 guineas (Mr Wildman contributed 400 guineas; Mr Wentworth contributed 600 guineas).

19 April, Newmarket
. Round Course. King's Plate. Four-mile heats. For six-year-olds; 12st (younger horses carry same weight). Six-year-olds Diana (mare), Chigger; five-year-olds Eclipse, Pensioner. Winner, 100 guineas.

Heat 1:
1st Eclipse
(Mr O'Kelly); 2nd Diana (Mr Fenwick); 3rd Pensioner (Mr Strode); 4th Chigger (Duke of Grafton). Diana and Chigger withdrawn.

Heat 2:
1st Eclipse
; distanced Pensioner.

Betting: (heat 1) 1-10* (1-15†) Eclipse; (heat 2) 6-4*, 7-4§ Eclipse to distance Pensioner.

5 June, Guildford
. King's Plate. Four-mile heats. For six-year-olds; 12st (younger horses carry same weight).Winner, 100 guineas.

1st Eclipse
(Mr O'Kelly) walked over.

3 July, Nottingham
. King's Plate. Four-mile heats. For six-year-olds; 12st (younger horses carry same weight).Winner, 100 guineas.

1st Eclipse
(Mr O'Kelly) walked over.

20 August, York
. King's Plate. Four-mile heats. For six-year-olds; 12st (younger horses carry same weight).Winner, 100 guineas.

1st Eclipse
(Mr O'Kelly) walked over. (Jockey: Samuel Merriott¶)

23 August, York
. Great Subscription. Four miles. For six-year-olds and
upwards. Six-year-old Eclipse (8st 7lb); seven-year-old Bellario (9st); eightyear-old Tortoise (9st).Winner, £319 10s.
1st Eclipse
(Mr O'Kelly); 2nd Tortoise (Mr Wentworth); 3rd Bellario (Sir Charles Bunbury).

Betting: 1-20 Eclipse; 4-7 Tortoise to beat Bellario. 1-100 Eclipse in running. (Jockey: Samuel Merriott¶)

3 September, Lincoln
. King's Plate. Four-mile heats. For six-year-olds; 12st (younger horses carry same weight).Winner, 100 guineas.
1st Eclipse
(Mr O'Kelly) walked over.

3 October, Newmarket
. Beacon Course (4 miles, 1 furlong, 138 yards). For six-year-olds, 8st 10lb (younger horses carry same weight); older horses, 9st 2lb. Six-year-old Eclipse; five-year-old Corsican. Subscription 30 guineas† (O'Kelly paid 100 guineas*‡).Winner, 150 guineas (one quarter of 20 subscriptions of 30 guineas each†).

1st Eclipse
(Mr O'Kelly); 2nd Corsican (Sir Charles Bunbury).

Betting: 1-70 Eclipse.

4 October, Newmarket
. King's Plate. Four-mile heats. For six-year-olds; 12st (younger horses carry same weight).Winner, 100 guineas.

1st Eclipse
(Mr O'Kelly) walked over.

9 races, 9 wins, including 6 King's Plates. Prize money: £2, 157.

Overall record: 18 races, 18 wins, including 11 King's Plates. Prize money: £2, 863.50.

Jockeys

Details about Eclipse's jockeys are sparse. The earliest report that John Oakley was in the saddle for Eclipse's Epsom debut comes in William Pick's
Authentic Historical Racing Calendar
(1785). John Lawrence, who did not see Eclipse race but did see him at stud, says that ‘we believe' that Oakley ‘generally, or always rode Eclipse'. But when in 1793 George Stubbs painted a copy of
Eclipse at Newmarket, with a Groom and Jockey
(the original is dated 1770), the exhibition catalogue identified the jockey as ‘Samuel Merrit, who generally rode him'; John Orton wrote that Merriott (the more usual spelling) rode Eclipse at York. Bracy Clark, in his record of the 1769 King's
Plate at Lewes, wrote, ‘Eyewitnesses say that John Whiting rode him this time; whether Oakley, his constant groom, always rode him is not certain.' The Turf historian James Christie Whyte asserted that ‘[Dennis] Fitzpatrick and John Oakley rode him in almost all his races'. According to the dates in Orton's
Turf Annals
, however, Fitzpatrick (the first Irish jockey to ride in England) was the same age as Eclipse – in other words, in 1769 he was five.

Bracy Clark's mention of Oakley as Eclipse's ‘constant groom' is arresting. In the days before race-riding became a distinct role, grooms usually doubled as race-riders. If Oakley were the groom, he – knowing the headstrong horse best – would have been a good choice of rider for Eclipse's first race.

Is Oakley the groom – or, as the catalogue copy puts it, ‘the boy who looked after him' – in Stubbs's painting? Eclipse may have belonged by this time to Dennis O'Kelly, who commissioned Stubbs; we do not know whether the groom would have changed stables with the horse. John Orton, though, described Oakley as a rider, chiefly for Lord Abingdon.

There is a jockey on board Eclipse in the Sartorius picture of Eclipse and Shakespeare. He looks a bit like the jockey in the Stubbs painting; but you could not swear that he is the same person. Another Sartorius painting is entitled
Eclipse with Oakley Up
. John Nost Sartorius was not painting at the time of Eclipse's racing career, but may have copied studies by his father, Francis.

One is inclined to treat all these reports with caution. The earliest ones, identifying Oakley at Epsom (Pick) and Merriott at Newmarket (Stubbs), seem to be the most trustworthy.

James Weatherby and William Sydney Towers, publisher and author respectively of
An Introduction to a General Stud Book
(1791), did an impressive job of introducing authority to the publication of pedigrees, sorting through previous haphazard compilations. Towers' account of Eclipse's breeding continues to be the one – small updates apart – you will see most commonly reproduced. But doubts, some of them ineradicable, surround the identities of several of the great horse's ancestors. In two instances, the
GSB
version is likely to be wrong.

The Sire's Side
Marske and Shakespeare

Eclipse is a son of Marske, according to all the published pedigrees. But as soon as Eclipse became famous, there was gossip about his paternity. The father was not Marske, some said, but a stallion called Shakespeare, whose claims had been suppressed by conspiracy (see also chapter 5).

These rumours were potentially damaging to William Wildman. Cannily, he had bought Marske as soon as he saw the potential of Eclipse, realizing that Marske's value as a stallion would shoot up once the ability of his son was known. By the time Eclipse had retired from his unbeaten career, Wildman was advertising Marske – whose services, when he was at the Duke of Cumberland's stud, had been considered to be worth no more than half a guinea – at a covering fee of thirty guineas. He had to prevent breeders, hoping to get another Eclipse, from entertaining the idea that they should send their mares to Shakespeare instead. One early attempt to quell the rumours was an advertisement in Tuting and Fawconer's 1771 racing calendar: the ad contained a signed statement by Bernard Smith, the stud groom of the Duke of Cumberland, asserting that Marske was Eclipse's sire. But it did not convince all men of the Turf. The bloodstock auctioneer Richard Tattersall argued, ‘for Shakespeare was a large and strong chestnut with white legs and face who got chestnuts and was a good runner. Marske was a bad runner, a brown, who got brown or bay. Mr O'Kelly's groom says Eclipse's dam was covered by both, and first by Shakespeare.'
¹⁹⁶