THE DUKE OF PORTLAND 



list of Derby winners, and was certainly not in the 

 same class with his stable companion, Donovan, 

 who was foaled a year later. He is a bay by 

 Donovan out of JNIowerina, a mare who may be 

 said to have done for the Duke of Portland's stud 

 what Mendicant did for that of Sir Joseph Hawley. 

 The winter of 1887-88 was a very severe one, indeed 

 Donovan was only off the straw bed about the 

 beginning of March. It was not surprising, there- 

 fore, that his trial with Maiden Belle — the same 

 filly who had " asked a question " of Ayrshire 

 in the preceding season — shortly before the 

 Brocklesby Stakes, was by no means satisfactory, 

 as she gave him 14 lb. and beat him three lengths. 

 Indeed he was sent to Lincoln more with the view 

 of sharpening him up than with any serious idea 

 of winning the first important two-year-old race 

 of the season. As he scored pretty easily by a 

 couple of lengths in the Brocklesby Stakes, it 

 seems certain that he must have been coming on 

 pretty fast, added to which, none of the half score 

 that finished behind him did much good in the 

 future. He came back from Lincoln with an 

 attack of shin soreness, but fortunately this passed 

 off very soon, and he was able to go to Leicester 

 in the first week in April, and easily beat a field of 

 twenty-four for the Portland Stakes of 6000 sov., 

 Chittabob being amongst the unplaced lot. It 

 may be thought that the Duke of Portland was 

 exceptionally fortunate in owning his best horses 

 just at a time when so many rich stakes were to be 

 Avon, but if the Lancashire Plate, Kempton Park 

 Royal Stakes, and one or two big prizes for two- 

 year-olds have since died out, it must be remem- 

 bered that the Princess of Wales's and Jockey Club 

 Stakes were not instituted until some years later, 

 so that things were pretty equal in this respect, 



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