16 FAMOUS EACING MEN. 



performance as a racehorse was at Newmarket on the 4th of October, 

 1770 — just eighteen months. During that period he had won eleven 

 King's Plates, in ten of which he carried 12st., besides other stakes 

 and matches. He was never once beaten or even approached, and 

 so great was his fame that he was seldom admitted to subscription 

 stakes without a high premium and penalty. Thus, in the last 

 race he ran, a 150-guinea plate, O'Kelly had to pay 100 guineas 

 entrance fee to enable his horse to run, and the only bets that 

 his owner could get on him were by laying long odds that Eclipse 

 would not only beat the other competitors, but distance them. 

 And when we remember that he did completely "lose sight of" 

 such horses as Strode's Pensioner and those two splendid animals 

 Bellario and Tortoise in a canter, it must be admitted that Eclipse 

 was a veritable wonder. But perhaps this famous animal's most re- 

 markable race was his match against Bucephalus, the son of the 

 renowned Regulus, at Newmarket, in April, 1770, each carrying 8st. 

 71bs. Wildman and O'Kelly had each staked 600 to 400 guineas on 

 Eclipse, for so high was the reputation of Bucephalus among racing 

 connoisseurs that the betting was only 6 to 4 on his opponent. It was 

 thought by the best judges that if Bucephalus were beaten at all it 

 would only be by a neck. A splendid race ensued for about half the 

 distance, but though the north-country horse was in grand condition 

 and ran with extraordinary gameness, proving himself a worthy son 

 of old Regulus, lie could not touch Eclipse, who simply romped in, 

 the easiest of winners. The effect "of this defeat upon Bucephalus, 

 who had never before been beaten, was singular. It fairly broke the 

 heart of the noble horse, and he never again ran in anything ap- 

 proaching to his old form. As a racehorse Eclipse was considered in 

 his day to have been the fleetest animal seen since the time of the 

 famous Flying Childers, who is credited with some of the most extra- 

 ordinary feats of sj)eed on record. Childers was a chestnut, like Eclipse, 

 but with a white blaze on his forehead, and four white legs. He was 

 bred by Mr. Leonard Childers, of Carr House, Doncaster, and foaled 

 in 1721, and the following astonishing performances are assigned him 

 by tradition. In 1721, in a trial against Almanzor and the Duke of 

 Rutland's Brown Betty, carrying 9st. 21b. over the Round Course at 

 Newmarket, he did the distance (3mls. 4fur. 93yds.) in 6min. 40secs. 

 He was said to have moved 82^ feet in one second, which is at the 

 rate of nearlj^ a mile a minute. He also covered the Beacon Course 

 (4mls. 4fur. 13yds.) in 7min. 30secs. No such marvellous "times" 

 are recorded of Eclipse, and, considering what clocks and watches 

 were in those days we may well doubt whether these achievements of 

 Flying Childers be not apocryphal. But the career of Eclijise at the 

 stud was even more brilliant .than that on the turf. He begat from 

 his own loins no fewer than 335 winners, who, between the years 1774 

 and 1796, won close upon £160,000 in stakes, exclusive of cups and 

 plates. The most famous of his immediate issue was Young Eclipse, 

 foaled in 1778, who won the second Derby in 1781 from a field of 



