A Running Commentary on the Race by R. C. LYLE , broadcast from
Sandown Park Racecourse
(Copyright. See notice on page 22)
For the first time the BBC is to broadcast one of the richest and most important races of the year. The forty-ninth renewal of the Eclipse Stakes is to be run today at Sandown Park, under the lovely woods of Esher. It is run over a distance of one mile and two furlongs, and is open to three year olds and four year olds only, entire colts and fillies, handicapped at weight for age, with certain allowances.
In theory, the best three year old of this year meets the best three year old of last, and more than once in the past have consecutive Derby winners been opposed, but so strenuous is the race on Epsom Downs today that they seldom accept the challenge. In 1892 and 1893 that great horse Orme, son of a mighty horse in Ormonde, won the race two years in succession, a feat that has been accomplished in this generation by both Buchan and Polyphontes.
Last year it was won by the 1934 Derby winner Windsor Lad, but the 1935 Derby winner Bahram did not oppose him, so in 1935 the two sons of Blandford were both unbeaten. Interest in this year's race lies in the fact that Theft, second in last year's Eclipse and fourth in the 1934 Derby, can take on Thankerton, third in this year's Derby, and Rhodes Scholar, whom many say would have won the Derby if he had been able to run. And so if they meet, some idea at any rate can be arrived at as to whether this year's, or last year's, three year olds are better.