Eclipse
Page 28
Eclipse is also at the heart of advanced genetic research. Matthew Binns of the RVC, Paula Jenkins of the Natural History Museum, and Mim Bower of Cambridge University have been leading a project to explore genetic variations in Thoroughbreds. The horses they have examined include, as well as Eclipse, Hermit, whose Derby victory broke Lord Hastings’s heart, and St Simon, the ‘steam engine’ ridden by Fred Archer. Their findings will give us our fullest understanding yet of these great horses, and may also offer information to help trace horses’ genetic weaknesses. One of the great worries for the bloodstock industry is that, in an inbred animal, genetic defects may be perpetuated and become widespread.
The researchers started by encasing in wax a tooth from the Eclipse skull, and drilled it. The genetic material they extracted contained bad news. This tooth did not belong to an animal from what, according to the official records, was Eclipse’s matrilineal line.193In the light of the convoluted history of the skeleton, a separation of the body from its proper head, and the replacement of the head with a substitute, are not surprising occurrences. The Natural History Museum, when it possessed the skeleton, displayed it headless, and has in its archives a letter from a man who had heard that Eclipse’s head was kept in a grotto – destroyed by fire in 1948 – in Weybridge.
As I write, results of tests on the body are yet to appear, though I am hopeful that they will conform to the accepted pedigree and thus indicate, with near incontrovertibility, that the RVC’s skeleton really is Eclipse’s. If the tests reveal a different pedigree, however, they will not prove fakery. Rather, I should be inclined to suspect that the pedigree was inaccurate. The skeleton seems to be the one that Sainbel studied. How could he have stripped and anatomized the wrong horse? He knew what Eclipse looked like: he said that he had seen him alive.194 It is hard to imagine a set of circumstances that could have compelled him, with the O’Kellys’ connivance or at their instigation, to pass off a fake as the real thing. I remain convinced that the skeleton in the RVC, or most of it, is Eclipse.
No other racehorse has done this much. Eclipse was a supreme champion, who easily defeated the best racehorses of the day. His bloodline was to dominate the bloodstock industry. In alliance with Herod, his genetic influence transformed racing into a spectacle of thrilling speed, for masses of people to enjoy. He is the icon of the sport, its unquestionable symbol of greatness: its Jesse Owens, or Michael Jordan, or Donald Bradman, or Pele. The Eclipse Stakes and the Eclipse Awards, along with various otherinstitutions named after him, are tributes to his status. Not only does he endure as ancestor of every Thoroughbred alive today, but as an inspiration to veterinary research and education.
I mentioned Owens, Jordan, Bradman and Pele. But they are only human. There is something otherworldly, as Stubbs knew, about a great horse; something belonging to the realm of legend.
From the distance over the Downs, a chestnut Thoroughbred appears: galloping with head low, jockey motionless, the rest nowhere.
186 See chapter 20 for more on the theory that the characteristic was passed on, through female offspring, to great racehorses including Phar Lap and Secretariat.
187 It began styling itself ‘Royal’ in 1826.
188 Also known as the London Museum, the hall was demolished in 1905.
189 Made for the Review of the Turf. See chapter 18.
190 Eclipse’s skeleton, notwithstanding a request from Edward VII that it be part of the exhibition, was not entrusted to the journey. The grand lunch was delayed a week, because news of Edward’s death came through on the day it had been due to take place. It is not clear whether the hoof was part of the occasion.
191 She does not appear to have had any evidence that the skeleton was in separate bits when in Bond’s care. John Orton, writing in 1844, said that Bond exhibited it.
192 There is a replica of this statue next to the paddock on the Rowley Mile course at Newmarket.
193 The researchers examined mitochondrial DNA, which is passed down the distaff line and which can therefore identify Thoroughbred ‘families’. (In the bloodstock world, the term ‘family’ indicates the bottom, female line of a pedigree.) Thoroughbred families were first classified by the nineteenthcentury Australian historian Bruce Lowe, who gave them numbers. Eclipse belongs to family number 12.
194 Dr Weller does not think that the inconsistency between Stubbs’s and Sainbel’s portrayals of Eclipse’s white markings is significant. ‘Since horse passports were introduced, vets have had to draw horse’s markings, ’ she says. ‘The differences between what two vets will draw are amazing.’
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Anon., The Genuine Memoirs of Dennis O’Kelly, Esq
Anon., Nocturnal Revels
Cook, Eclipse and O’Kelly
Gatrell, City of Laughter
Hitchcock, Down and Out in Eighteenth-Century London
Picard, Dr Johnson’s London
Porter, English Society in the 18th Century
Weinreb and Hibbert (eds), The London Encyclopaedia
Williams, History of the Name O’Kelly Town & Country
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Chapter 2
Anon., The Genuine Memoirs of Dennis O’Kelly, Esq
Anon., Nocturnal Revels
Archenholz, A Picture of England
Brown, A History of the Fleet Prison, London
Burford, Wits, Wenchers and Wantons
Burford and Wotton Private Vices – Public Virtues
Clayton, The British Museum Hogarth
Hickey, Memoirs
Linnane, Madams, Bawds and Brothel-Keepers of London
Porter, English Society in the 18th Century
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Weinreb and Hibbert (eds), The London Encyclopaedia
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Fleet records, National Archives
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Chapter 3
Anon., Nocturnal Revels
Sexual Life in England
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Burford and Wotton, Private Vices – Public Virtues
Chinn, Better Betting with a Decent Feller
Cook, Eclipse and O’Kelly
Egan, Sporting Anecdotes
Harcourt, The Gaming Calendar and Annals of Gaming
Linnane, Madams, Bawds and Brothel-Keepers of London
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Porter, English Society in the 18th Century
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Thompson, The Meretriciad
Thompson, Newmarket
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Chapter 4
Cook, Eclipse and O’Kelly
Duke of Ancaster’s Stud Book (1772–78)
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FitzGerald, Thoroughbreds of the Crown
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London Evening Post (1765)
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Chapter 5
Blake, George Stubbs and the Wide Creation
Church, Eclipse: The Horse, the Race, the Awards
Clark, A Short History of the Celebrated Race-horse Eclipse
Cook, Eclipse and O’Kelly
FitzGerald, Thoroughbreds of the Crown
Fountain, William Wildman and George Stubbs
Heber, An Historical List (1764, 1765, 1768)
Lawrence, The History and Delineation of the Horse
Lawrence, A Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses
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Mortimer, The History of the Derby Stakes
Orchard, Tattersalls
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Chapter 6
Church, Three Generations of Leading Sires
Clark, A Short History of the Celebrated Race-horse Eclipse
Cook, Eclipse and O’Kelly
FitzGerald, Royal Thoroughbreds
Holcroft, Memoirs of the Late Thomas Holcroft
Lawrence, A Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses
Lawrence, The History and Delineation of the Horse
Lawrence and Scott, The Sportsman’s Repository
Longrigg, The History of Horse Racing
Markham, How to Choose, Ride, Train and Diet
Morris, Thoroughbred Stallions
Mortimer, The Jockey Club
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Rice, The History of the British Turf
Robertson, ‘The Origin of the Thoroughbred’ Taunton, Famous Horses
Taunton, Portraits of Celebrated Race Horses
Thompson, Newmarket: From James I to the Present Day
Trew, From ‘Dawn’ to ‘Eclipse’
Wentworth, Thoroughbred Racing Stock
Willett, The Classic Racehorse
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TBHeritage.com
Chapter 7
Bawtree, A Few Notes on Banstead Downs
Church, Eclipse: The Horse, the Race, the Awards
Clark, A Short History of the Celebrated Race-horse Eclipse
Cook, Eclipse and O’Kelly
Curling, British Racecourses
Epsom Common
Gill, Racecourses of Great Britain
Grosley, A Tour to London
Heber, An Historical List (1766, 1768)
Home, Epsom: Its History and Surroundings
Hunn, Epsom Racecourse
Lawrence, The History and Delineation of the Horse
Lawrence, A Philosophical and Practical Treatise on Horses
Lillywhite, London Coffee Houses
Longrigg, The History of Horse Racing
O’Brien and Herbert, Vincent O’Brien
Pagones, Dubai Millennium
Picard, Dr Johnson’s London
Piggott and Magee, Lester’s Derbys
Porter, English Society in the 18th Century
Pownall, Some Particulars Relating to the History of Epsom
Rice, The History of the British Turf
Salter, Epsom Town Downs and Common
Waller, 1700: Scenes from London Life
West, Tavern Anecdotes
Whyte, History of the British Turf
The Times digital archive (1787)
Town & Country (August 1770)
Coolmore.com Epsom Salt Council website
Measuring Worth website
Chapter 8
Bawtree, A Few Notes on Banstead Downs
Church, Eclipse: The Horse, the Race, the Awards
Clark, A Short History of the Celebrated Race-horse Eclipse
Cook, Eclipse and O’Kelly
Egan, Book of Sports
Egerton, George Stubbs, Painter
Gill, Racecourses of Great Britain
Grosley, A Tour to London
Lawrence, The History and Delineation of the Horse
Lawrence and Scott, The Sportsman’s Repository
Longrigg, The History of Horse Racing
Magee, Ascot: The History
Mortimer, The Jockey Club
Osbaldiston, The British Sportsman
Orton, Turf Annals
Pick, An Authentic Historical Racing Calendar
Porter, London: A Social History
Prior, Early Records of the Thoroughbred
Rice, The History of the British Turf
Salter, Epsom Town Downs and Common
Taunton, Famous Horses
Tuting and Fawconer, The Sporting Calendar (1769)
Walker, An Historical List (1769)
Whyte, History of the British Turf
The Sporting Magazine (September 1793; January 1794)
Chapter 9
Anon., The Genuine Memoirs of Dennis O’Kelly, Esq
Burford, Royal St James’s
Church, Eclipse: The Horse, the Race, the Awards
Clark, A Short History of the Celebrated Race-horse Eclipse
Cook, Eclipse and O’Kelly
Egerton, George Stubbs, Painter
FitzGerald, Royal Thoroughbreds
Lawrence, The History and Delineation of the Horse
Longrigg, The History of Horse Racing
Orchard, Tattersalls
Orton, Turf Annals
Pick, An Authentic Historical Racing Calendar
Rede, Anecdotes and Biography
Rice, The History of the British Turf
Seth-Smith, Bred for the Purple
Thompson, Newmarket: From James I to the Present Day
Tuting and Fawconer, The Sporting Calendar (1769, 1770)
Walker, An Historical List (1769, 1770)
The Sporting Magazine (September 1793)
Town & Country (August 1770; September 1770)
York Courant (14 August 1770; 2 October 1770)
Chapter 10
Anon., Nocturnal Revels
Anon. (Charles Pigott), The Jockey Club
Archenholz, A Picture of England
Burford, Royal St James’s
Burford, Wits, Wenchers and Wantons
Burford and Wotton, Private Vices – Public Virtues
Hickey, Memoirs
Linnane, Madams, Bawds and Brothel-Keepers of London
‘OMIAH: An Ode Addressed to Charlotte Hayes’
Rubenhold, The Covent Garden Ladies
Thompson, The Courtesan
Thompson, The Meretriciad
Weinreb and Hibbert (eds), The London Encyclopaedia
Annual Register (1774)
The London Magazine (1772)
The Times (September 1815)
Town & Country (February 1769)
Chapter 11
Black, The Jockey Club and Its Founders
Cain, The Home Run Horse
Conley, Stud
Cook, Eclipse and O’Kelly
Egerton, George Stubbs, Painter
FitzGerald, Th
oroughbreds of the Crown
Fountain, William Wildman and George Stubbs
Harding, An Elegy on the Famous Old Horse Marsk
Lawrence, The History and Delineation of the Horse
Lawrence and Scott, The Sportsman’s Repository
Orchard, Tattersalls
Orton, Turf Annals
Pick, An Authentic Historical Racing Calendar
Randall and Morris, Guinness Horse Racing: The Records
Taunton, Portraits of Celebrated Race Horses
Tuting and Fawconer, The Sporting Calendar (1769, 1770)
Walker, An Historical List (1769, 1770)
Willett, The Classic Racehorse
Willett, The Story of Tattersalls
Racing Calendar
Racing Post Bloodstock Review 2007
The Sporting Magazine (January 1794)
TBHeritage.com
Chapter 12
Black, The Jockey Club and Its Founders
Curling, British Racecourses Derby Day 200
Gill, Racecourses of Great Britain
Longrigg, The History of Horse Racing
Magee, Ascot: The History
Mortimer, The History of the Derby Stakes
Thompson, Newmarket: From James I to the Present Day
Towers, An Introduction to a General Stud Book
Tyrrel, Running Racing
Willett, The Classic Racehorse
Willett, A History of the General Stud Book
Guardian (21 March 2006)
Racing Calendar
The Sporting Magazine (June 1814)
British Horseracing Authority website
The Cox Library website
The Jockey Club website
TBHeritage.com
Weatherbys website
Chapter 13
Anon., The Genuine Memoirs of Dennis O’Kelly, Esq
Black, The Jockey Club and Its Founders
Cook, Eclipse and O’Kelly
Egan, Boxiana
Egan, Sporting Anecdotes
Epsom Common
Harcourt, The Gaming Calendar and Annals of Gaming
Lawrence, The History and Delineation of the Horse
Lawrence and Scott, The Sportsman’s Repository
Parsons, Philip, Newmarket: Or an Essay on the Turf