RACE HORSE 
Whatever may have been its original source, the Racer has been greatly improved by 
the mixture of Arab blood, through the means of the Godolphin and Derby Arabians. 
The celebrated Horse Eclipse was a descendant, on the mother’s side, of the Godolphin 
Arabian, that wonderful animal which was rescued from drawing a cart in Paris, and 
which was afterwards destined to play so important a part in regenerating the breed of 
English racers. He was also descended, on his father’s side, from the Darley Arabian. 
It is a remarkable fact, that both parents of this extraordinary animal were unappreciated 
by their owners, Marsk, his father, having been purchased for a mere trifle, and then 
permitted to run nearly wild in the New Forest. Spiletta, his mother, only ran one race, 
in which she was beaten, and Squirt, the father of Marsk, was actually saved by the 
intercession of a groom as he was being led to the slaughter-house. 
Eclipse was never beaten, and his racing career extended only through seventeen 
months, and in that short period of time he won more than twenty-five thousand pounds, 
At his last race he was obliged to walk over the course, as no one dared enter a Horse 
against him. Ten years after that event, his owner, Mr. O’Kelly, was requested to sell 
him, and demanded the sum of twenty-five thousand pounds, an annuity of five hundred 
pounds a year, together with six of his offspring yearly. When he died, in 1789, he.was 
twenty-five years old, and had realized for his owner a princely fortune. His skeleton is 
now in the museum at Oxford. His shape was very remarkable, the hinder quarters 
being considerably higher than the shoulders, and his breathing was so thick that it could 
be heard at a considerable distance. He was originally purchased for seventy-five guineas, 
at the death of the Duke of Cumberland, by whom he was bred. 
