78 THE TURF 



of Wales' Stakes on the Thursday started favourite 

 at 2 to I on. The going at Goodwood is generally- 

 excellent, but this year there had been torrents of rain, 

 and the course was almost a morass, with a great pool 

 of water standing at the end of the lawn ; such a state 

 of things had not been experienced within living 

 memory, and it may be that Donovan fell a 

 victim to the consequences of the weather, for here he 

 met with his second defeat, El Dorado winning by 

 six leno-ths from Gold, with Donovan another six 

 lengths behind. That the horse had not deteriorated 

 in any way was made plain enough subsequently. He 

 cantered away with the Buckenham, having there 

 nothing to beat, however, and a similarly easy task 

 was before him in the Hopeful Stakes ; but the Middle 

 Park Plate was of course a different matter. Here he 

 met thirteen opponents, including Gold, and Donovan 

 won comfortably. Gold not being in the first six ; he 

 ended the labours of the season by taking the Dew- 

 hurst Plate, having secured in all eleven races, worth 

 ^16,487, the largest sum ever won by a two-year-old. 

 Donovan wintered well and started next season 

 brilliantly by winning the Prince of Wales' Stakes at 

 the Leicester Spring Meeting, then worth ^11,000. 

 Nothinof had ever seemed much more certain than that 

 he would win the Two Thousand Guineas ; but how 

 Enthusiast beat him, or rather how Tom Cannon 

 beat F. Barrett, has been described in the previous 

 chapter on " Jockeys," Of course it was an accident, 



