Brothers who turned Glorious Goodwood into a family feud

Name Double Trigger
Year of birth 1991
Pedigree Ela-Mana-Mou - Solac
Trainer Mark Johnston
Before the duel Won the Henry II Stakes and the Ascot Gold Cup to set up his first Goodwood Cup challenge
After the duel Completed the stayers' Triple Crown in the Doncaster Cup. Went on to win three Goodwood Cups and three Doncaster Cups before an unremarkable career as a National Hunt stallion

Name Double Eclipse
Year of birth 1992
Pedigree Ela-Mana-Mou - Solac
Trainer Mark Johnston
Before the duel Won his first two races as a two-year-old; second in the Queen's Vase and then unplaced in the Irish Derby before Goodwood
After the duel Won the Listed Lonsdale Stakes at York and went on to score four more times, three of them in Group company, before becoming the sire of useful jumps performers Go Native and Double Ross

It would be nice to think Ela-Mana-Mou and Solac, the parents of Double Trigger and Double Eclipse, found the time to sit down in the twilight of their years, once their procreating was done, and bathe in the warm glow of their boys' achievements.

To have two sons who gave so much pleasure to the world of Flat racing would surely have been of great comfort to these model parents, although it seems likely they would have gone through some misgivings along the way.

'Trigger', Solac's 1991 foal, may have ended his career as a public hero in a sphere that so often precludes the admiration of the purists, but in his early days he was a feckless youth whose behaviour reflected not at all well on his origins.

At home on Mark Johnston's Middleham gallops, the flashy chestnut with the playboy's mindset had a lackadaisical approach to working life – "not the easiest horse in the world", was the diplomatic verdict. So Johnston headed south to Ascot rather than north to Redcar on September 25, 1993 and reportedly even forgot to watch on TV what would surely be a calamitous debut.

When informed by owner Ron Huggins that Trigger had bolted up by ten lengths in track record time for the 1m1f trip, he could have been forgiven for thinking he was being duped. Far from it, this was the start of a long and distinguished career for the juvenile delinquent turned model citizen, who ended his juvenile season two-from-two after landing Newmarket's Listed Zetland Stakes.

Thirteen months after the birth of Double Trigger at Roy Strudwick's Ballygallon Stud in Kilkenny, along came Solac's next foal. Where Huggins had paid a mere 7,200gns for Trigger, he stumped up a full ten grand more for Double Eclipse, and the Middleham Partnership that owned him were rewarded with two wins from his first two two-year-old starts – the second of them a Listed success at Newmarket - followed by runner-up spot in an Italian Group 2.

Trainer Mark Johnston and Double Eclipse, brother of stablemate Double TriggerCredit: Alec Russell

Jason Weaver, who rode both colts throughout their two-year-old campaigns, recalls the early days with Double Trigger at Kingsley House.

"Bobby Elliott [Johnston's former assistant] used to say that Trigger, with his flaxen mane and tail, four white socks and a blaze, was only good for Chipperfield's circus, and he was the type who always had his head in the manger and never did anything on the gallops, but I remember one morning he had a bit of a buck and a kick as we were going to the bottom of the gallops and nearly got rid of me, so I reached back and gave him two sharp smacks round the arse.

"It seemed to register because he worked much better than anyone had seen him work before, so we had one little glimmer of something. We never once imagined he would go on to do what he did, but at Redcar on his debut everything was new to him and he seemed to need something like that to get his blood up.

"He was a different horse going to post than the one who used to slob around in the mornings and when I pulled him out in the race and gave him a flick he absolutely took off.

"I always thought Eclipse had the engine but he didn't have as good a chassis as his brother. There was probably more of a weight of expectation on him than there had been on Trigger in the early stages but they both turned into top stayers."

Double Trigger ended his three-year-old season St Leger-placed and winner of the Italian Leger, as well as beaten just seven lengths in the Hong Kong International Vase, then resumed as a four-year-old with wins in the Sagaro Stakes, Henry II Stakes and Ascot Gold Cup. His only defeat came at the hands of Moonax in the Yorkshire Cup over an inadequate 1m6f.

He was sent off 2-1 favourite at Goodwood, while 15-2 shot Double Eclipse had ploughed a rather less flamboyant furrow to the race, beaten at Longchamp and Ascot in Group company on his opening runs as a three-year-old, before finishing down the field in the Irish Derby.

Going into the race Weaver had a choice to make, but although two years later he misguidedly chose Eclipse over Trigger, in 1995 he favoured the older horse with no hint of doubt.

"I was so sure he'd win, and that I'd have a double with Hever Golf Rose in the big sprint, that at the start of the week I went to Goodwood Golf and Country Club and bought myself a brand new set of graphite clubs with a ridiculously big, white tour bag.

"They both won and that paid for the clubs, although I'm still chopping it around on the golf course, so buying them probably cost me a fortune in the end."

On the track, things weren't quite so clear-cut as in the jockey's mind. Double Trigger set off in front and Weaver was happy to go along with him, but in the final two furlongs, with the rest of the field trailing, Double Eclipse and Tyrone Williams moved up and threatened to go past. That, however, was reckoning without Trigger's bottomless well of resilience.

"If anything, he was harder to get to post than he was to ride in a race," recalls Weaver, "because he'd drag you to the start, then as soon as the gates opened he'd switch off because he knew there was at least a mile and six to go before he had to start doing anything. He was a bit lazy really, but only until he needed to do more.

"I remember Tyrone coming to challenge but Trigger was the sort of horse who made a jockey look good. You'd be pushing away, looking all out, then something would come and challenge and he'd stride away again. If you want to say I'd ridden a well-judged race and saved just enough for the finish, I'll take it, but it was more down to him - he'd always drag you out of a hole."

Double Trigger went to Doncaster to complete the stayers' Triple Crown that season, and ended his career with a haul of three Goodwood Cups – ridden in the other two by Michael Roberts and Darryll Holland – and three Doncaster Cups – ridden in his second by Frankie Dettori and in his third, his final career start, by Holland.

Double Trigger and Darryll Holland are led in after landing the 1998 Doncaster CupCredit: Edward Whitaker

Double Eclipse was less prolific, scoring at Group level at Longchamp and York, but for many people, their abiding memory of the pair will be the day they locked horns in one of the best Goodwood Cups you're ever likely to see.

Crowd pleaser with an iron will

Double Trigger may not have gone down in the form book as one of the all-time greats, but he was a crowd-pleaser of the highest order and Weaver lapped up the public acclaim the horse brought with him.

“In a jockey’s life, rushing around the country riding this and that, even if you get on a good horse there aren’t too many people craning their necks to get a look at him,” says the now TV presenter, “but Trigger’s appearance caught people’s imagination and even now you can’t get away from him if you go to Doncaster and see his statue and the bar they’ve named after him.

“He was more than just a public favourite, though – he was a real tough racehorse. There’s a lot of talk about the whip at the moment, but if he didn’t want to go he wouldn’t go, and of all the horses I rode, he was the only one I used to think going past the line that I was nowhere near the bottom of him.

“I honestly never knew how far he could have kept on going, because he was relentless and still seemed to have that energy left at the finish. Because of that, I never got legged up on him thinking he wouldn’t win.”