Born during, and named after, an annular eclipse on April1, 1764 – dubbed ‘The Great Eclipse’ by the scribes of the day – Eclipse did start racing until he was fully mature, as a five-year-old, but won all of his 18 races between May 3, 1769 and October 4, 1770. Indeed, such was his dominance during those two seasons that he started at odd-against just once and walked-over on eight occasions, having frightened the opposition away. His eventual retirement to stud, in 1771, was due, in large part, to the lack of meaningful competition.
On May 3, 1769, prior to the second heat of the Noblemen and Gentleman’s Plate on Epsom Downs, Connacht-born gambler Dennis O’Kelly supposedly asked for odds against “Eclipse first, the rest nowhere”. In other words, O’Kelly was suggesting that Eclipse, who had won the first heat easily, would pass the winning post before any of his rivals passed the ‘distance’ post, 240 yards from the finish, such that they would be deemed to have finished ‘nowhere’. Eclipse did just that, landing odds of 6/4 and even money for the intepid Irishman, who later used his winnings to buy the horse.
Following his retirement from racing, Eclipse stood at Clay Hill Stud, Epsom and later at Cannpns Stud, Edgware, where he would become the foremost sire of modern Thoroughbreds, with his name appearing somewhere in the pedigree of approximate 95% of the breed. Eclipse died following an attack of colic on February 27, 1789, aged 24. Nowadays, his almost complete skeleton is on display at the Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire. On the racecourse, he is commemorated by the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes, which is run annually at Sandown Park in July. Established in 1886, the Eclispe Stakes was, at that stage, the most valuable race ever run in Britain.