Eclipse by Nicholas Clee

Nicholas Clee introduces his new book about our favourite racehorse!

This website is not the only place where you will find tribute paid to Eclipse, the great 18^th-century Thoroughbred. Sandown Park stages the Coral Eclipse Stakes, one of the most important races in the English Flat racing calendar. In America, the Oscars of the racing world are called the Eclipse Awards. There is an American equestrian publisher called Eclipse Publications. The Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire has an Eclipse building. Tony Morris, Britain’s foremost bloodstock expert, has written: “If the question posed were to name the most famous Thoroughbred in history, only someone from another planet could fail to nominate Eclipse.”

Why is Eclipse (1764–1789) so venerated?

The first reason is his supreme ability. Racing in 1769 and 1770, Eclipse was almost certainly the greatest Thoroughbred seen to that time, his only serious rival to the accolade being Flying Childers (1715–1741). He won all his 18 races with ease, defeating the best horses of the day without ever raising a sweat. “He was never beaten, never had a whip flourished over him, or felt the tickling of a spur, or was ever, for a moment, distressed by the speed of a competitor,” an early historian wrote.

Then there is Eclipse’s unparalleled influence. All contemporary Thoroughbreds are descended from him; and, because of inbreeding, they have him in their pedigrees many times over – indeed, many thousands of times over. It is estimated that 95% of Thoroughbreds descend from his male line. In other words, if you go back from the 2008 Derby winner New Approach, for example, to his father, and to his father’s father, and so on back some 20 generations, you arrive at Eclipse; and you would arrive at the same destination if you examined the pedigrees of most contemporary racers.

His influence spread beyond the horseracing world. When Eclipse died, in 1789, a French veterinarian called Charles Vial de Sainbel anatomised him, producing a treatise that advanced Sainbel's ambition of setting up Britain’s first veterinary college. Eclipse’s skeleton resides at the Royal Veterinary College today, as does a statue of the horse and a painting of him by George Stubbs. Vets and scientists continue to study him, and the vets use models of his bones as props when they give lectures in schools and colleges.

All these are excellent reasons for remembering him. But what makes the Eclipse story so especially appealing for a writer is his unlikely owner. During the Georgian era, the best horses were almost all owned by royalty, or by people of title, or by landed gentry. Dennis O’Kelly boasted none of these qualifications. He was an Irish-born chancer and adventurer, who rose in the world largely through what may kindly be described as sharp practices. Even more scandalously, O’Kelly’s companion was Charlotte Hayes, the most celebrated brothel madam of the day. Charlotte’s sumptuous establishment in St James’s may have entertained many leading men of the Turf; that did not mean that they wanted to mingle with her, or with her roguish lover, socially.

A great horse, an outsider against the establishment, and scandalous sex: it is a story that has been enormous fun to write.

Read an extract from the book: Eclipse First