The Eclipse Stakes refers to one of the most famous horses of the 18th century. Eclipse, so named due to being foaled in 1764, the year of a partial eclipse of the sun, ran in 18 races in 1769-70 and won them all. Because races were generally run in heats then – the winner of the race being the first horse to finish first in two heats – he actually ran 25 times. He won every one, though eight were walkovers; he frightened off the opposition. They were conditions races, for handicaps did not yet exist, nor did any of the classics. Nearly all were over four miles. Stamina rather than speed was the most highly prized quality of a racehorse then.
He was held in such high esteem not just as a racer but even more so as the most influential stallion of his era. Indeed, the vast majority of today’s thoroughbreds are descended from him.
In the 1880s Sandown, a successful new course awash with money, was looking to establish a big race with a prestigious title, they came up with the Eclipse Stakes.
Then as now, it was the first top-class middle-distance race of the summer to pitch the three-year-olds against older horses. The mile and a quarter trip had the potential to attract Guineas and Derby horses. The mammoth first prize of £10,000 (about £900,000 in today’s money) was twice that of the Epsom Derby.
Though first run in July 1886, its conditions were announced in September 1883. Entries were then open “for foals and upwards” to run in a race all of 34 months later. That cost their optimistic owners £10. They had to pay again to keep their horses entered; £20 in 1884, £30 in 1885 and £50 in 1886.
Eleven made it to the start in 1886. Bendigo, who had won the Cambridgeshire and the Lincoln in previous years, was a popular 6/4 winner. He proved himself top class by going on to win the Champion Stakes a year later. A three-year-old, Candlemas, excelled himself by filling the runner-up berth and rewarded his owner’s faith in entering him as a foal. He collected £500 for finishing second.
The race was an immediate success and Sandown kept the enormous prize money up until WW1. In 1919 they halved it, and by 1939 it was down to £1,500. Nevertheless it has been one of the top mile and a quarter races ever since, and is often the place where classic-winning three-year-olds meet older opposition for the first time.