No pace, no problem: how a madcap Eclipse ripped up the rulebook and showed that perceived wisdom can become convenient cliches

After a sublime Royal Ascot, it seemed unrealistic to expect the Eclipse to follow suit, but it did so in spades. It was a race of countless twists, with the ascendency changing hands like a game of pass the parcel. In the end, the most unlikely winner came through to snatch the spoils.

It also exposed some perceived wisdoms, not least that the place to be in a falsely run race is up with the pace. As with the slowly run Queen Anne Stakes, the winner came from far back when the race started in earnest. It goes to show there are no golden rules, just generalisations which, if repeated ad nauseam, become convenient cliches when dissecting a race.

There was so much to take in. The opening thought, as the six runners jostled for early positions at a modest tempo, was: Where are the pacemakers? If Ombudsman and Sosie would have appreciated one, Hotazhell and Ruling Court positively screamed for a hare to help them settle. Both were both stepping up in trip and raced too keenly for their own good.