People who follow thoroughbred racing are familiar with the Eclipse Awards which are voted on at the end of each year by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing Form, and the National Turf Writers Association. It is considered the “Oscars” of horse racing. It honors Champion Horses in 11 Divisions, Owners, Breeders, Trainers, Jockeys and selects one outstanding horse for their Horse of The Year Award. Few know much about the horse this prestigious award is named for.
Eclipse was thus named because he was born April 1, 1764, the day of a solar eclipse from Spain to Scandinavia, at Cranbourne Lodge Stud owned by Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland. Eclipse was a bright chestnut with a narrow blaze down his face terminating between his nostrils, and a high white stocking on his right rear leg. As he grew up, his rowdy attitude nearly got him castrated. At age 5, he stood just over 16 hands with his rump an inch higher than his withers. He was a large horse for his day with what many considered an “ugly head.”
What piqued my interest the most is that Eclipse was the great-grandson of the famous Darley Arabian on his father’s side and he was a grandson of the famous Godolphin Arabian on his mother’s. I’ve owned Arabian horses for 34 years and am very partial to the breed. Eclipse was a part-bred Arabian.
The Duke of Cumberland died in 1765. The leggy yearling, Eclipse, passed through several owners including a meat farmer/sheep dealer before half interest in him was sold to Dennis O’Kelly, an Irish gambler, scrapper, womanizer and conman. One of his previous owners had enough of his testy attitude and hired a rough rider to put him through his paces. A brutal schedule of hard trotting during the day with “poaching runs” at night settled him down, or plain tired him out. No one was ever able to contain him, even under saddle during a race. His jockeys just sat down and held on. Eclipse loved to run!
Dennis O’Kelly came to England from a tiny town in western Ireland to seek his fortune. He found himself carrying Sedan Chairs for the rich and famous. He cultured a relationship with a wealthy benefactress that put coins in his pocket and the lifestyle he craved. Gambling was pervasive in all levels of society at that time. Wealthy women who found themselves cash poor often turned their fancy homes into gambling palaces to maintain their standard of living. O’Kelly discovered the joys of gambling. His benefactress introduced him to all the right people before she died. Not long later, during a stint in debtor’s prison over gambling debts, he ran into one of the most famous “ladies of the evening” in the country, the brothel madam Charlotte Hayes. They began a partnership and romantic relationship that lasted until he passed away years later from overindulgence, more commonly called gout.
Eclipse began his racing career at the age of 5. Racing then was nothing like today. His first race was three heats of four miles. He won it without a serious challenge. Mr. O’Kelly laid out his down-payment on a half interest in Eclipse after the first two heats that day. He supposedly also coined the famous phrase, “Eclipse first and the rest nowhere.” Nowhere meant at least 240 yards behind.
Eclipse raced 18 times between 1769 and 1770, winning every race. Eight of those races were walkovers, meaning he had no competition. O’Kelly bought out the other half interest in Eclipse so he could keep all his winnings.
May 3, 1769, he ran four-mile heats to win at Epsom Downs, and on the 29th he ran two- mile heats to win at Ascot, earning fifty guineas (a guinea was one pound, one shilling) at each race which was a King’s fortune in those days. He ran four races in June that year, two in July and ended with one in September. He won the King’s Plate in five of those races, 50 guineas in three of them and the City Silver Bowl in Salisbury his first year. In 1770, he ran two races in April, one in June and July, two in August, one in September and finished with two races in October, back to back on the 3rd and the 4th, earning another King’s Plate. In ten of the King’s Plate races, Eclipse carried 168 pounds, the highest weight that was carried by a winner in England up to 1840. He ran one Match Race in 1770 at Newmarket against the notable Bucephalus and won easily. O’Kelly was forced to retire him after October 1770 because no other horse would run against him and no one bet on the other horses anyway. Eclipse was widely known as the horse no one could ever beat.
During Eclipse’s 17-month racing career, Dennis and Charlotte enjoyed the finer things in life. They set up housekeeping in Middlesex in a lovely country home where they entertained lavishly. It is interesting to note their former home became the prim and proper North London Collegiate School for Girls.
When Eclipse retired in 1770, things only got better for them. Eclipse stood at stud early on for 10 guineas per mare which increased rapidly to 50 guineas per mare. He earned the couple close to Thirty Thousand Pounds, or Six Million Dollars in today’s money. Some of that came from racing, but a good amount came from breeding. Eclipse bred over 300 mares at 50 guineas apiece, which is the equivalent of $10,000 per mare now.
Eclipse kept breeding despite the fact his feet gave out on him and he foundered. Probably the first “horse-box,” or horse-trailer, was created to move him from mare to mare around England in relative comfort. Ultimately, Eclipse suffered an attack of colic at age 24 and passed away a couple of years after O’Kelly. Eclipse left a legacy of fine horses behind. It is estimated that 95% of today’s Thoroughbred horses trace directly back to him through their male tail line.
A necropsy, or animal autopsy, was done on Eclipse when he died. The doctors found his heart weighed an exceptional 14 pounds. This same “X-Factor” applied to two of his most famous descendants, Secretariat and Phar Lap.
After Eclipse died, pieces and parts of him spread far and wide. His tail hairs became ornaments, and his hooves became inkwells, five of which have surfaced to date. His bones shuffled around a bit before they finally landed at the Royal Veterinary College near Hatford in England. They’ve studied his bones and DNA from his teeth to find out what made him such an exceptional horse. Dr. Alan Wilson, who was in charge, said: “All the factors for speed perfectly matched. A key ability for a fast horse is to be able to bring its legs forward quickly, which is difficult for large animals with long limbs. Eclipse was smaller than modern racehorses. Rather than being some freak of nature with incredible properties, he was actually just right in absolutely every way.”
