THE Eclipse was a race of tribulation for Decorated Knight. First, he gets hampered by Taj Mahal at the first bend and Olivier Peslier has to check back. Then he gets hampered by Eminent as that horse tries to shoulder him out of his way on the run to the two-furlong marker. Not only that but, when it was apparent to Eminent that Decorated Knight would not be easily shifted, he went to take a clip out of his nose with his mouth. It was one to forget for Roger Charlton’s horse.

It was also one to forget for Cliffs Of Moher, who was caught in the backwash at the first bend. The Galileo colt did well in the circumstances to finish fourth. You can easily put a line through this race for him. It was one to remember, however, for Ulysses and Sir Michael Stoute and Jim Crowley. It was Ulysses’ first Group 1 win and it was a deserved one. It could be the first of many too, he shapes like a horse who just does enough, he could have had more left to give, and it is interesting that his trainer is determined that he gets a mile and a half all right.

It was Sir Michael Stoute’s sixth Eclipse, and it was a narrower victory even than his first, Opera House, who got home by a short-head (they didn’t have noses in those days, but it probably would have been a short-head even if they had had noses) from Misil under Michael Kinane in Sheikh Mohammed’s white cap, with Muis Roberts under the maroon cap with the white star on Barathea back in fifth.

It was also Jim Crowley’s first Eclipse, and it might not have been had the champion jockey not been replaced on Eminent, whom he had ridden in all four of his previous races. Crowley had ridden Ulysses just once before, in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, and it was interesting to hear him say afterwards that he learned a lot from that ride, that he got there too soon at Ascot, that he determined that he would ride him more patiently at Sandown, and he did.

It’s a good angle: jockey riding horse in race for second time. You can ride them as often as you like at home but you cannot simulate racing conditions on the Limekilns. The fact that Crowley had ridden Ulysses at Ascot, and the experience of the horse in a race that he had consequently gained, probably made a difference of more than the nose by which he prevailed in the Eclipse.