In her latest column, North Yorkshire trainer Ann Duffield reflects on the big race of the weekend, and looks forward to another northern raid on a big southern prize.

THE big meeting at Sandown at the weekend played host to the Coral Eclipse.

The event, established in 1886, is named after Eclipse – the hugely talented 18th-century racehorse, and was at the time, Britain's richest race with a prize fund of £10,000 (the equivalent of about £1.5 million today), donated by Leopold de Rothschild apparently at the request of General Owen Williams, a co-founder of Sandown Park.

Coral bookmakers have sponsored the Group 1 race since 1976, leading to the name we now refer to instinctively as the "Coral-Eclipse".

Run in early July when the ground is almost always on the good or faster side, this year’s running of the race on soft ground made it a bit of an exception but the winner was no fluke. American bred “Hawkbill” had been supplemented at a cost of £30,000 earlier in the week, having won his previous five starts, including the Group 3 Tercentenary stakes at Royal Ascot.

And while good horses make winning look easy, this son of the high class US bred and based “Kitten’s Joy” has been anything but easy. Fourteen months ago he was wearing a hood and was tailed off, his love of the racing game not exactly evident, so it’s all credit to Charlie Appleby and his Godolphin team that they have clearly worked the oracle with this boy.

For William Buick it must have been a bitter sweet moment. After his big win on Saturday he signed off for a month-long ban courtesy of the French Stewards who doubled his initial 15-day ban (for interference) when in a fit of pique, he let rip.

It was not exactly his best moment and he will pay a high price for his loss of control - missing the July cup this week for starters.

My husband George too won the Eclipse a couple of times, including the epic battle between his mount on the great “Giants Causeway” and Pat Eddery on “Kalinisi”. Both jockeys picked up bans then too, but for very different reasons. The whip rules at the time were considered unreasonably harsh so the rules were changed slightly afterwards.

AT Haydock on Saturday, Middleham Park Racing syndicate scored with bargain buy “Tawdeea”, an 11,000 guinea purchase and another decent horse sold out of Richard Hannon’s yard last autumn, when winning the “Old Newton Cup”.

For locally-based jockey Danny Tudhope, it was his biggest win this year so far after a season plagued by injury. Well done to him.

THE “Northumberland Plate - or “Pitman’s Derby” - was run for the first time on tapeta a week last Saturday and was almost won by popular Malton-based trainer Brian Ellison with “Seamour” but for hitting the front a tad too soon and getting caught near the line by the Godolphin trained “Antiquarium”.

It was agony for Brian and his team who, a furlong out, must have been sure of victory. Watching the race run on all-weather was different to say the least but no less of a success.

THIS week, we have Newmarket’s July meeting to look forward to and the North will be cheering on Middleham’s fastest filly currently in training, when Karl Burke’s “Quiet Reflection” takes her chances in Saturday’s “Darley July Cup”. Here’s hoping for another successful northern raid on a big prize in the south.

OTHER promising news for the North came as John Smith’s extended the world’s longest sponsorship arrangement for a flat race.

The “John Smiths Cup” (also known as the Magnet Cup) will continue until at least 2019 when it will mark 60 years of continued sponsorship with our premier racecourse. That shows fantastic commitment.

AT Sun Hill, we’ve been kept busy during the last fortnight. Our frustrating run of placed horses has been matched with more of the same but further wins from Searanger, Whispering Soul, Benidiction, Brockholes and Cuppacoffee, kept us smiling.

Brockholes won the feature race last week at Catterick, her first time in a handicap and only her second start for us after arriving here from Richard Fahey’s stable, so it was good to get a winner on the board for a new owner.

Cuppacoffee showed what a tough two-year-old he is by winning again at Carlisle on Saturday under our apprentice Rowan Scott.

WE have been busy too moving some horses on, selling a few and rehoming those not suited to racing life.

We have only one horse left to sell from recent breeze-up sales and he happens to be a smart American bred boy who we like, so I am keen to retain some of him if possible and, as the Eclipse winner showed, American bred horses are suited to British racing.

Thanks to Newcastle, we now have plenty of USA style racing options open to us locally too.

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