Marske or Shakespeare?

The rumor that Eclipse was not a son of Marske has been circulating now for over 230 years and the only published work on the subject was penned by John Lawrence. For the fun of speculation and not really confirming that this is true, I have added here the relevant passage together with both versions of his pedigree. Food for thought.

The History and Delineation of the Horse in all his Varieties, by John Lawrence, 1809, pages 229 and 230, says :

"I will, in this place, speak a few words on the pedigree of the renowned Eclipse. It has always been taken for granted, that he was a son of Marske, a fact, beyond the power of man to ascertain. Eclipse's dam was covered both by Shakespeare and Marske, and she came to Marske's time, so the honour was awarded to him. If I recollect aright, she had missed by him the previous year. But the circumstance of a mare coming regularly to her time, determines nothing, since they are so uncertain in that respect, in which I have repeatedly known variations from a week or ten days, to two or three weeks. Great stress was laid upon the supposed likeness of Basilius, one of the earliest sons of Eclipse, to old Marske, and indeed the resemblance appeared to me strong ; but I could discover no common family-resemblance between Eclipse and his presumed full-brother Garrick. On the other hand, I think Eclipse strongly resembled the family of Shakespeare, in colour, in certain particulars of form, and in temper. Nothing can be more unimportant than these speculations, and Eclipse's pedigree would suffer no loss of honour or credit, should Shakespeare be placed at the head of it ; which Horse had more of the Darley Arabian in him, than Marske, and in all respects, was equally well-bred, and full as good a runner. Shakespeare, like Marske, was a great-grandson of the Darley Arabian, through Hobgoblin and Aleppo, and his dam the little Harteley mare ; the dam also of Blank, was a grand-daughter of the same Arabian, and out of the famous Flying Whig. One or two of the sons of Eclipse, yet alive, appear to me strongly to resemble the Shakespeare.

It is necessary, however, to subjoin the late intelligence on this subject, with which I have been favoured by Mr. Sandiver, of Newmarket, which goes to assert, on the authority of the stud-groom, that Eclipse's dam really never was covered by Shakespeare. On this I can only observe, that in the year 1778, I was frequently in the habit of visiting Old Eclipse, then at Epsom, on which occasions I often discoursed the subject of the disputed pedigree, with Colonel O'Kelly's then groom, who assured me that the mare was covered by Shakespeare, which account I also had from various other persons, as a well-known fact. And to conceal nothing, it had been reported, that a groom had been bribed to ascribe the get of Eclipse to Marske, there being a strong interest in the reputation of that stallion. I have no doubt, but Mr. Vauxhall Clarke will recollect this report".

Imagine if this were true? It would change forever the outlook of family 15, at least for me it would.