page_title: Donovan (horse)
section_title: 1888: two-year-old season
hierarchical_section_title: Donovan (horse) / Racing career / 1888: two-year-old season
caption_attribution_description: Statesman No.402: Caricature of The Duke of Portland. Caption reads: "the Young Duke"
context_page_description: Donovan was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from 1888 to 1889 he ran twenty-one times and won eighteen races. He was the leading British two-year-old of 1888 when he won eleven of his thirteen starts. At three Donovan won The Derby and the St Leger: he failed to win the English Triple Crown owing to a narrow and probably unlucky defeat in the 2000 Guineas. He set a world record by earning a total of £55,443 in win prize money. Donovan was a modest success as a stallion. He died after being injured in an accident in 1905.
context_section_description: Donovan appeared in the first week of the flat season to win the Brocklesby Stakes at Lincoln Racecourse "a bit cleverly" by two lengths from the filly Poem. He then took the Portland Stakes at Leicester, winning by three lengths from a field of twenty-four opponents for a prize of £6,000, making the race more valuable than the Derby. In the £5,000 Whitsuntide Plate at Manchester Racecourse, Donovan was set to carry 136 pounds and suffered his first defeat when four lengths second to the well-fancied Chitabob.
  In the summer of 1888 Donovan was sent to Royal Ascot where he won the New Stakes from weak opposition. He then won the Home-bred Foal Stakes at Stockbridge and the Hurstbourne Stakes at the same venue on 28 June, winning  easily by two lengths. On 3 July at Newmarket he won the July Stakes by half a length from Gold, the only other runner. At Goodwood later in the month he took the Ham Stakes, but then finished third to El Dorado and Gold in the "Prince of Wales’s Stakes" on "fearfully heavy going."
  At Newmarket in autumn, Donovan proved himself the year's best two-year-old with four more wins. He won the Buckenham Stakes and the Hopeful Stakes, before running in the season's most prestigious two-year-old race, the Middle Park Plate on 10 October. Carrying top weight of 129 pounds he started 11/8 favourite in a field of fourteen and won in a race record time of 1:15.2, beating Gulliver by two lengths. The unplaced horses included the colt Enthusiast and the filly Minthe, who went on to win the 2000 Guineas and the 1000 Guineas respectively. Up to this point, all his races had been over five or six furlongs but on his final start of the year he moved up to seven furlongs for the first time and added the Dewhurst Stakes, giving ten pounds to Enthusiast and winning "in a canter".
  He ended the season as the "acknowledged Champion" having won eleven of his thirteen starts against the best available opposition and earning a record £16,487. He was compared in the press to previous outstanding two-year-olds such as Thormanby and The Bard. It was also pointed out that in easily winning the Dewhurst Stakes, he had emulated the achievement of Ormonde and Kisber, both of whom went on to win the Derby. Donovan went into the winter as 3/1 favourite for the Epsom race, despite concerns about a perceived lack of stamina in his pedigree.
caption: 6th Duke of Portland, Donovan's owner and breeder
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