THE DUKE OF PORTLAND 



on the Thursday. The rain had continued ahnost 

 without intermission, so that by this time the 

 ground was in such a state as I have never seen it 

 at this meeting before or since. As George Daw- 

 son observed to me when talking over the race, he 

 had "never taught Donovan to swim," and El 

 Dorado won by six lengths, Gold also turning 

 the tables upon the favourite. Of course it is 

 perfectly true that the conditions were the same 

 for all, but some horses are helpless in very deep 

 ground, whilst it is well known that an unnatural 

 state of the "going" is constantly productive of 

 entirely false running. It is possible also that 

 Donovan was feeling the effect of his constant 

 work since the first week of the season, and was a 

 little stale, as he did not run again until the New- 

 market First October, where a couple of nice 

 little stakes were mere exercise canters for him. 

 There were thirteen behind him in the Middle 

 Park Plate, including Clover, Gulliver, Enthusiast, 

 Minthe, and Miguel, and the fact that Gold was 

 " down the course " furnished pretty good proof of 

 the falsity of the Goodwood form. He wound up 

 his first season by securing the Dewhurst Plate, in 

 which it is noteworthy that he gave 10 lb. and a 

 half-length beating to Enthusiast, the colt who 

 was destined to deprive him of the " triple crown." 

 Few two-year-olds of late years have gone through 

 such a heavy season's work, and he went into 

 winter quarters with the fine score of eleven wins 

 out of thirteen races. 



Under ordinary circumstances Donovan would 

 not have made his first appearance in the ensuing 

 year until the Two Thousand Guineas, but the 

 temptation of the Prince of Wales's Stakes at 

 Leicester on April 6 was too great to be resisted. 

 This was a race of the total value of 12,000 sov., 



184 



