Paddington emerged victorious but Eclipse was an enthralling duel

I should have listened to George Duffield. Sandown Park’s Eclipse Stakes, the first time the Classic generation of three-year-olds take on their elders, is one of my favourite races and the then 53-year-old rider’s triumph on Giant’s Causeway in 2000, beating Kalanisi by a head after Pat Eddery had driven him into the lead 200 yards from the finish, was the duel I will never forget. Duffield was Sir Mark Prescott’s stable jockey and soon after that race the Newmarket maestro took a call from Aidan O’Brien, Giant’s Causeway’s trainer. ‘Whatever you do Sir Mark,’ said the quiet Irish voice, ‘make sure you breed from him before you let him go!’

I can only marvel at the way trainers tell a horse’s wellbeing by the bloom on his coat, the twitch of his ears

This year’s Eclipse was a fascinating prospect. Vying for favourites were O’Brien’s three-year-old Paddington, winner of the Irish 2000 Guineas and victor at Royal Ascot in the St James’s Palace Stakes, and Emily Upjohn, the four-year-old filly who won the Fillies and Mares Champion Stakes last year and took this year’s Coronation Cup at Epsom.