Customer Reviews

Eclipse

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Born in 1764, Eclipse easily won every event in which he competed. This wide-ranging book provides a long-overdue look at his life and career, together with the people around him and an insight into life in eighteenth century London. It also explain some of the major developments in the way horseracing evolved and what happened to Eclipse`s skeleton. There's even an art chapter featuring George Stubbs and other painters. Part of one of George's paintings adorns the front cover.

The early history of horseracing is hazy, as events weren't chronicled meticulously. Other events of the time are also open to doubt, especially concerning the people who were in some way connected to the story of Eclipse. Eighteenth century journalists, like their modern counterparts, were prone to distorting the truth when it suited their objectives. With all those caveats, and allowing for further embellishment by the author, the story as told is certainly fascinating even if it may not be entirely true.

Plenty of upper class people feature in the story, notably the Duke of Cumberland. His military career included victory over Bonnie Prince Charlie's army at Culloden, but was otherwise mostly a series of failures. (Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped; his army were butchered.) More successful as a racehorse owner and breeder, the duke bred both Herod and Eclipse, but he died of ill-health (at least partly self-inflicted, it seems) in his mid-forties when Eclipse was just a yearling, well before he started his racing career.

The main characters were a disreputable but charismatic Irishman, Dennis O'Kelly, and his partner, Charlotte Hayes, an up-market brothel owner. Charlotte was well aware that her reputation depended on the health and well-being of her prostitutes (aka nuns), so she encouraged her clients to use Mrs Phillips' famed new engines to avoid spreading venereal diseases. Charlotte also taught her nuns to behave in a very ladylike fashion, appropriate for her upper class clients.

In 1769/70, when Eclipse raced, all races were run in heats over long distances, as they had been for centuries before. Within the next decade or two, British racing changed rapidly to single races over shorter distances. The St Leger started in 1776, the Oaks (for fillies only) in 1779 and the Derby in 1780. If these races had existed in 1767, when Eclipse was three years old, he would surely have won the Derby and St Leger. As it was, he didn't start his racing career until he was five, which was the custom of the time.

Two chapters on Eclipse's male line legacy feature horses that the author wanted to write about, irrespective of whether they were important to its continuance - Hambletonian, Whalebone, Running Rein, Gladiateur, Hermit, St Simon, Sceptre, Pretty Polly, Phar Lap, Arkle, Nijinsky, Secretariat and Dubai Millennium. (Seabiscuit wasn`t a member of the Eclipse male line, otherwise it's clear that he would have been included too.) Running Rein doesn't deserve mention in such illustrious company, but the author clearly wanted to write about the notorious 1844 Epsom Derby. Really, I think that somebody in Hollywood should use that race as the basis of a movie. In the piece on Nijinsky, the author grudgingly concedes that Mill Reef (who got me hooked on racing) may have been a better racehorse than Nijinsky; Lester Piggott certainly thought so. In the piece on Dubai Millennium, he disparages Snaafi Dancer, The Green Monkey and Jalil, omitting to mention that Jalil was a decent horse who won at Group level, albeit never justifying his purchase price.

In those legacy chapters and in the main story, the author sometimes contradicts himself in different passages. He acknowledges the importance of Herod and Matchem in the development of the thoroughbred, especially in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, yet maintains that the pre-eminence of the Eclipse line today proves Eclipse's superiority. Yet the eighteenth century annual champion sires lists (which Eclipse never topped, though he was often second) show that the Herod line was the strongest at that stage, as the author acknowledges. Eclipse was probably the best racehorse of the eighteenth century (though Flying Childers and Highflyer appear to be other candidates for that title) but he was a less successful stallion than Herod or Herod's son Highflyer. The author even suggests that St Simon ensured the survival of the Eclipse line, yet St Simon's branch of that line is as much in peril today as are the Herod and Matchem lines.

The author discusses Eclipse's large heart, explaining a theory that the gene for it may be tied to the X chromosome. If so, a stallion can only pass it to his daughters, but a mare can pass it to all her offspring. That may explain why Highflyer (often mated with Eclipse's daughters) was such a great stallion and may also explain why some stallions (including Secretariat, who had a huge heart) become successful broodmare sires while their sons are disappointing. If this theory is true, Eclipse was a more important stallion than we thought, but not because of the male line. Male lines are interesting as Ed Bowen's Dynasties shows, but never tell the whole story, as the author also acknowledges.

The book is fascinating, but sometimes strays far beyond the world of horseracing. Although the author may have tried to write with a wider readership in mind, I'll be surprised if it appeals to a non-racing readership; this book isn`t another Seabiscuit: An American Legend. I wanted to read about all the people connected to Eclipse, but I wonder if the author overdid this aspect, especially as the main story continues into the early nineteenth century, well after both Dennis O'Kelly and Eclipse were dead.

The book was bound to be flawed because of its reliance on eighteenth century sources, but the author has added in his own flaws. Nevertheless, there's a great story here with a lot of information that's worth reading, if you tolerate the flaws.

"Eclipse first, the rest nowhere" was a challenge uttered by this outstanding Thoroughbred's boastful owner, Dennis O'Kelly. At the time of Eclipse's first race in May, 1769 at Epsom, a horse that was more than 240 yards (a furlong = 220 yards) behind the lead was said to be `nowhere.' Eclipse won all of his races, some of them walkovers because none of his competitors wanted to face him, but not all of his rivals ended up `nowhere.' According to this author, another unbeaten Thoroughbred named Bucephalus challenged Eclipse in a 4-mile race at Newmarket:

"As they came within sight of the stands, Bucephalus moved up on Eclipse's flank to challenge, goading Eclipse into the most determined gallop of his career. Eclipse surged ahead. Bucephalus strained to keep in touch until, broken, he fell away, leaving Eclipse to arrive at the line well in front. Bucephalus never raced again. Eclipse, by contrast, shrugged off his exertions to race again two days later."

Eclipse retired to stud after competing only 17 months on England's 18th Century racecourses. Nobody wanted to run their Thoroughbreds against him. Perhaps it was just as well this remarkable horse was retired early to the breeding shed, because of "the extraordinary influence that Eclipse has exerted, through his male line, on the development of racing." The genetic legacy of this stallion is to be found in 80% - 90% (depending on the source) of all modern Thoroughbreds. Of all the current top stallions at stud in Europe and America, only Tiznow is not a male-line descendant of Eclipse--he is a tail male descendant of Machem, another great 18th Century English Thoroughbred.

The story of Eclipse takes up only part of this book, which is also a history of Georgian England--at least, as viewed from the racetracks, debtor prisons, gaming houses, and brothels. Eclipse's owner, Dennis O'Kelly was a larger-than-life Irish immigrant, who spent more time in the Fleet debtor's prison than he did on the racetrack--at least during his earlier years. He met his long-time mistress, Charlotte Hayes at the Fleet, then graduated from debtor's prison to become a professional gambler (`blackleg'), while Charlotte became the `abbess' (madam) of a high-class `nunnery.' Everyone who was anyone in Georgian England--from the Butcher of Culloden (Prince William, son of George III), who was Eclipse's original owner, to Sir John Fielding (the `Blind Beak of Bow Street'), who once tried Dennis O'Kelly following a brawl at the Bedford Arms.

One of my favorite anecdotes involves the Duke of York, brother of King George III, who insulted a high-class prostitute by leaving her only half of her normal fee:

"Kitty, whose usual charge for a night was 100 guineas, illustrated her contempt by placing the banknote between two slices of buttered bread, which she ate for her breakfast."

The latter part of `Eclipse' skips around a bit, telling the story of George Stubbs, who painted Eclipse several times, the travels of Eclipse's skeleton, and the racing/breeding careers of several of this Thoroughbred's descendants. The author has collected many memorable stories about Thoroughbreds and their owners, right into the 21st Century.

One of the most recent anecdotes involves the feud between `Sheik Mo' (ruler of Dubai) and the `boys' (Ireland's Coolmore Stud), and the battle for the world's most expensive Thoroughbreds (not necessarily the best, but definitely the most expensive). According to this author, Coolmore is winning handily. I am hoping very much that Nicholas Clee expands this ongoing story into another fascinating book about the world of Thoroughbreds. He would be the perfect author to record the high (and low) shenanigans of the world's richest racehorse owners.