Free Eclipse by Nicholas Clee Page A

tail; another two, one of them pushing from the rear, guided the half-ton Eclipse towards docking. Once there, he did not hold back, and was done in a few seconds. He rested on Clio for a couple of moments longer, before withdrawing. As Dennis’s was a well-managed stud with a regard for hygiene, Eclipse had his penis and testicles washed before he returned to his paddock – the importance of this procedure would be demonstrated a few years later when the great stallion Herod, bred like Eclipse by the Duke of Cumberland, died following an inflammation of his penis sheath. Eclipse was probably due to be on duty again later in the day.
    The mare, calm now, returned to her paddock. Everyone hoped that Eclipse’s sperm was fusing with Clio’s ovum to produce an embryo, but, as this was 1771, they could not scan to check. The best that the stud managers could do was try to maximize Clio’s chances of getting pregnant. They may have arranged for Eclipse to cover her again, the same day or within a day or two. Over the course of the next month, they presented her to the teaser a couple of times more; when she showed no interest, they assumed that she had conceived. While Clio remained in her own paddock, visiting mares would return home at this stage. Their grooms and other staff from their studs would arrive, pay the fees (fifty guineas, a guinea for the groom, and grazing fees) and take them away. If any mares turned out not to be ‘in foal’, Dennis would offer a special deal next season. 90
    The greater frequency of double coverings is the maindifference between the eighteenth-century stud and a modern farm. Now that scanning has reduced the reliance on double coverings, stallions are able to cover more mares. Eclipse, in his first season, covered sixty mares, as well as those owned by Dennis; a leading contemporary sire such as Montjeu, standing at the Coolmore stud in Ireland, covers a hundred mares or more each spring. In 2007, the National Hunt sire Oscar managed, with unflagging virility, 367 different coverings. Some stallions do not even get a holiday. At the end of the season, ‘shuttle stallions’ travel to the southern hemisphere and put in another stint there. It is a busy job; but they have to do it, because the Thoroughbred industry, wishing to preserve the integrity of the breed, has never contemplated the introduction of artificial insemination.
    In spring 1772, Clio gave birth to a male foal, named Horizon. By the time Horizon was a yearling, Dennis faced the quandary of all owner-breeders: whether to sell the horse, or train him for racing. If he sold, he earned instant money. If he raced the horse, and other home-bred colts and fillies, he might find that they would show the ability to become valuable stallions and broodmares of the future; on the other hand, he could not afford to give the impression that he was holding on to the best ones and selling only the dross. He held on to Horizon. Two years later, Horizon became the first offspring of Eclipse to race, and won a match over a mile at Abingdon, earning 300 guineas. But his subsequent career was moderate, and he did not graduate to become a stallion.
    Such is the story of the vast majority of horses in training, including impeccably bred ones. Great racehorses are rare, only a small percentage of that rare group become successful stallions, and only a small percentage of those successful stallions become part of an enduring line in a Thoroughbred dynasty. In 1771, there were three stallions – Herod, Matchem and Eclipse – who were to join this elite group; and the Eclipse line was to dominate those of the other two by a ratio of more than nine to one.
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    Actually, there were four stallions in this elite group, because Eclipse’s sire, Marske, was still in business – indeed, after fifteen years at stud, he was only now, thanks to Eclipse’s exploits, coming into fashion. As mentioned earlier,