FATAL HEART ATTACK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21671, 24 March 1945, Page 6

FATAL HEART ATTACK

STEVE DONOGHUE LONG TURF CAREER (10 a.m.) LONDON. March 23. The death is announced of the famous jockey, Steve Donoghue, after an illness of 24 hours. Donoghue consulted a doctor regarding his heart last Tuesday and was to have entered a London nursing home to-day for several weeks' complete rest. He suffered a heart attack early this morning from which he died in a few minutes.

Steve Donoghue, the most famous English jockey since Fred Archer, retired from race-riding at the end oi the 1939 season. Donoghue set up as a trainer, and among the first batch of horses trained were those owned by Sir Victor Sassoon, a loyal frienc and his .principal patron during his last six years as a jockey. Donoghue began his career bv being indentured to the late .Johr Porter, from whom he absconded He treated his next master, M. D. Peacock, similarly. It was in France that he rode his first winner—in 1905. He was thus 21, years of age before race success came his way. Derby Record Set

His first win in England was at the same meeting on Behan's Colder Rod, who afterwards won the Goodwood Stewards’ Cup twice. Donoghue’s first mount in the Derby, in which he was afterwards to set up a record that wilt probably stand foi all time, was in 1910, on Charles O'Malley, who finished third to Lemberg and Green Back. He began tc ride regularly in England in 1911. becoming first jockey to H. Bersse’s stable. For that trainer Donoghue rode The Tetrarch, the "Spotted wonder,” in most of his seven successes.

Donoghue first headed the list ol winning jockeys in 1914, and occupied the position of honour for the eighl succeeding years. He tied with C Elliott in 1923. His Derby winners were: Pommern (1915). Gay ‘Crusader (1917), Humorist (1921); Captain Cuttle (1922), Papyrus (1923), and Manna (1924). His long sequence ol successes in the Derby was probablj attributable to his absolute fearlessness on (he Epsom track, and to his ability to balance a horse over the gradient and to drive it at full pace down the hill to Tottenham Corner without getting his mount out or it‘ stride.

Donoghue rode the winners of all the classics at one time or another and also most of the principal handicaps. Among the prominent owners whose colours he wore were King George V., Lord Derby. Lord d’Abernon, Messrs. J. B. and S. B. Joel. Major M Calmont, Lord Londonderry Lord Carnarvon, and Lady Queensberry. Another .of his patrons wa c an Anglo-Indian, Mr. Galstaun who originated the slogan “Come on. Steve.” A memorable! episode in Donoghue’s career was his visit to the United States in 1923 to ride Papyrus in that Derby winner's unsuccessful series of match races against Zev.