Sunday Times
4th July, 2026.
Familiarity should not lessen the achievement of either man or beast. Constitution River followed up the French Derby by taking the Eclipse for his 5th win in a row giving Ryan Moore and Aidan O’Brien a 4th consecutive success in the race which Moore has now won six and O’Brien record 10 times.
Even writing those figures can bring on a touch of ennui not to mention envy. But they are there as a statement of sustained excellence never yet seen in the racing world. The Coolmore bred and bought horses O’Brien is training in Tipperary are the harvest of more than 50 years of work and study and daring. Where most operations start a season with only one or two classic contenders, O’Brien sets out with ten times that. He has the bloodlines and has perfected the routine. He had the first three in both the English and French Derbies and was only thwarted from a clean sweep yesterday when Hawk Mountain was run out of second by A Boy Named Susie trained by, would you believe it, O’Brien’s 27 year old former champion jockey son Donnacha.
The facts have to be appreciated but so too should the contest. For this was just the sort of horserace that the founders hoped for when the Eclipse Stakes was first run in 1886 with, at £10,000, the richest prize in the game. The £1 million on offer yesterday couldn’t match that part of the ambition but the idea of testing the top three-year-olds for the first time against their elders was fulfilled when Sandown winning four-year-olds, Gethin and Saddad, were pitched in against the classic generation.
Gethin is a beautiful, crested-neck grey, and was even equipped with his own pacemaker which proved somewhat futile as the horse, King’s Gambit, missed the break and could never get anywhere near the lead which was held by Constitution River’s own “domestique” Flushing Meadow on whom Sean Levey set off as if the hounds of hell were on his heels.
They were clocking sub 11 second furlongs with Gethin heading the pursuit followed by Hawk Mountain with Constitution River in behind them and A Boy Named Susie and Saddad right out the back. Flushing Meadow was a hopeless 7 lengths clear turning in but the real battle was joined two and a half furlongs out as Hawk Mountain and Gethin briefly duelled with Constitution River looming outside.
Gethin’s effort was soon spent. Hawk Mountain lasted a while longer, but Moore had now fully gathered Constitution River to run home three lengths clear of his stablemate whom A Boy Named Susie deprived of second place in the closing strides. Constitution River is a magnificent beast, “lovely and scopey” confided O’Brien in that winning way of his as we entered the paddock, “I am sure he will improve.” He did.
The bay colt is yet another top performer for his sire Wooton Bassett who died last September but has been an example of Coolmore foresight, the team having spotted the stallion potential of the one-time star two year old whose career had tailed off to see him standing as low as 4k euros but ended under the new banner at 50 times that fee.
The best three Eclipse winners I have seen were Mill Reef, Dancing Brave and Sea The Stars. Constitution River’s body of work is some way short of theirs but the Juddmonte, the Irish Champion and the Breeders Cup now beckon and yesterday was not a day for Aidan to undersell. “We’re over the moon with him,” O’Brien said of his latest Eclipse hero. “We think he’s a special horse. He’ll have no problem from a mile to a mile and a half. Ryan said he doesn’t think he’s ridden a better horse, you can go anywhere.”
Racegoers and TV viewers alike will have recognized another FAMILIAR figure in the winning entourage. For at Constitution’s head, as, uniquely, he has been for four Derby winners, including City Of Troy who followed that with the Eclipse in 2024, was the impressive bulk of Davey Hickey. 47 year old Davey may not be no lightweight but he is a worker. Before his duties at Ballydoyle he is up at 3.30 to feed and exercise the greyhounds he runs at Clonmel.
For your notebook Davey thinks that Constitution River will be even better with easier ground. More immediately he says his Sparks Pepsi is worth an interest in the third race at Clonmel tonight. Davey is a big figure there too.