No way back for Bosra Sham and Fallon as daring move misfires

It is not easy to convey the events surrounding an event 20 years distant, but perhaps the best handle on the 1997 Coral-Eclipse Stakes was that Benny The Dip, who had won the Derby five weeks earlier, was almost overlooked in the five-runner field.

The John Gosden-trained colt did not come into the race with anything like the attention paid this week to Cliffs Of Moher – and Benny The Dip had actually won at Epsom. That is because he faced two formidable older horses in Bosra Sham and Pilsudski. In consequence, Benny The Dip was virtually ignored by punters at 6-1.

That was hardly surprising. Pilsudski, embarking on his fourth seasonal campaign, had closed his third by winning the Breeders’ Cup Turf, having finished runner-up in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Sir Michael Stoute's horse was a rugged competitor, in common with so many horses bred by Lord Weinstock at his Ballymacoll Stud in Ireland.