SPORT ANCIENT AND MODERN 



Ministers and ex-Ministers would ride or drive 

 down to the famous race ; and in white hats with 

 blue veils discuss the prospects of their favourites. 

 Political leaders would give vent to splendid groans 

 when they realized that they had sold the winner. 

 In the midst of the Crimean War the result of the 

 Derby was to be recorded in general orders. 

 Crowds would assemble in London, and from 

 London to Epsom, to watch the still greater crowds 

 returning from the contest. For a week Epsom 

 would reek of racing. During that period the 

 eyes of the sporting section of the civilized world 

 would be turned on the little Surrey town. Many 

 indeed, who were in no respect sporting, became 

 sporting for that occasion. It is much the same 

 now. The Olympian dust is the same, and is still 

 scattered by the flying horses. The world still 

 admires — not perhaps with so concentrated a gaze. 

 And all this excitement, enthusiasm, triumph, 

 whatever you may call it, Epsom, and the universe 

 perhaps owe to an extra magnum of Lord Derby's 

 choice claret, or a superfluous bottle of Lord 

 Derby's curious port. 



In all probability there was at the period 

 of this memorable carouse a feeling amongst 

 owners of racehorses that stakes should be 

 increased, or rather, perhaps, that certain stakes 

 should be made of great importance, with the 

 object of attracting horses from all parts of the 

 country. Racing, all through the eighteenth 

 century, had been conducted on local lines, 

 and at Newmarket — then, as now, the head- 

 quarters of the sport — matches appear to have 

 been more popular than open stakes. The 

 St. Leger had already been established, and 

 though it had hardly yet become a success, it 

 is possible that southern owners were a little 

 jealous of their northern rivals, or at least 

 determined to have as great a race as that 

 which had come into existence at Doncaster 

 three years before. The St. Leger dates from 

 the year 1776, the Oaks from 1 779, and the 

 first Derby was run in 1780. 



The first Derby was a very different affair 

 from the Derby of the present day, the prize 

 being about a fifth of its modern value, and 

 the race half a mile shorter. The conditions 

 are thus described in the calendars of the day : 



Thursday, May 4, 1780. The Derby stakes of 

 50 guineas each, half forfeit for three year old 

 colts 8 stone ; and fillies 7 stone 1 1 lbs. One 

 mile (36 subs.). 



The winner was Sir Charles Bunbury's chest- 

 nut colt Diomed. Diomed started favourite 

 at 6 to 4, and beat eight opponents, the placed 

 horses being Bowdrow by Eclipse, and Spitfire 

 by Eclipse — the sire of these two being the 

 most remarkable, and probably the best, horse 

 that ever ran on Epsom Downs. Eclipse was 

 closely identified with Epsom. His running 



days were over some years before the institu- 

 tion of the Derby, but in all the history of 

 racing at Epsom no horse has ever performed 

 there who was, like Eclipse, in a class by 

 himself, or who, during his two seasons on the 

 turf, won race after race with such consum- 

 mate ease; he almost invariably 'distanced'' 

 his opponents. 



At the stud Eclipse was almost as great a 

 wonder as he was on the racecourse. His 

 owner, Capt. O'Kelly, made ^^2 5,000 by 

 Eclipse's services as a sire — an enormous sum 

 for those days — and at the present day nine- 

 tenths of the best racehorses in the world have 

 his blood in direct tail male, while every 

 thoroughbred foaled can trace back to him in 

 scores of different ways. From him are 

 directly descended the three great lines of 

 Birdcatcher, Touchstone and Blacklock, and 

 it is only very occasionally that the winner of 

 the Derby comes of some other line of blood. 

 In fact, to put it briefly. Eclipse is even now 

 the most famous of all English racehorses, 

 and his blood, nearly 120 years after his 

 death, may be said to dominate the only other 

 lines which still exist. In his racing days, 

 it used to be, in the words of his owner, 

 ' Eclipse first and the rest nowhere ' (meaning 

 that his opponents would be distanced), and 

 now for years past it has been a case of 

 'Eclipse first and the rest nowhere' in the 

 matter of pedigree. All the great horses of 

 modern times, such as St. Simon, Ormonde, 

 Isinglass, Persimmon, St. Frusquin and Flying 

 Fox descend in the direct line on the sire's 

 side from this mighty chestnut, whose blood 

 has gone all over the world, and is equally at 

 the head of affairs in the English colonies and 

 on the continental turf. 



Eclipse was brought to Epsom, or rather to 

 Mickleham, and there put into training, and 

 his debut was made in a j^5o Plate, on Epsom 

 Downs, in 1769. He had been well tried, 

 but the result of the trial had leaked out — 

 a thing which sometimes occurs even now — 

 and as much as 4 to i was laid on him, in 

 spite of the fact that he had never run before. 

 He distanced his opponents, and during that 

 season and the next he scored one victory 

 after another. According to the turf his- 

 torians of the day he was never even held for 

 speed, though it is said that Bucephalus, whom 



• ' Distanced.' Two hundred and forty yards 

 from the winning post on the racecourse is placed 

 a post called the ' distance post ' ; in the old days 

 of heat racing, a horse which had not reached the 

 distance post when the winner had passed the 

 judge's chair was said to have been ' distanced,' and 

 was thereby disqualified from starting in subse- 

 quent heats. 



493 



