Donoghue's Derby

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 30, 2 August 1923, Page 33

Donoghue's Derby

"Steve” Donoghue, on Mr. Irish’s Papyrus, on Wednesday (says the Mo uch ester (riuirtluui lor June 8), won his third consecutive Derby, in addition to winning two "substitute Derbys” during the war. The time of the race was 2min. 4()scc., or usees, more than in last year’s race. Lord Derby’s Pharos was second, a good length behind, and Mr. Goculdas’s Parth was third. It is estimated that the crowd at Epsom numbered 250,000. The day was cold and misty. A feature of this year’s Derby has been the increase in the number of sweepstakes publicly announced and the amount of money involved. In one, a sweep promoted by the Otley Conservative Club, the winner, Mrs. Nellie Ford, of 13 Pembroke Street, Skipton, is a factory operative. She drew Papyrus and wins £31,517. Miss Bidder, of Harrogate, a young secretary, wins the first pi ize of £IO,OOO in the Cork Hospitals Sweepstake. The Dublin hospitals first prize (about £10,000) goes to a Mr. A Cawthorno, of Enfield! Mr. Ben Irish, the pwner of Papyrus, is a tenant farmer at Peterborough. His horse’s victory is a distinct triumph for the “little owner,” for Mr. Irish, it is understood, has never had more than two horses in training ,}t one time. His first notable success was the victory of Periosteum in the Ascot Gold Cup (worth £3690) in 1921, and presumably it was a part of these winnings that he invested when purchasing Papyrus for 3500 guineas at the Doncaster Sales in 1921. ■' Everybody -has known since the first week in June (savs the Christchurch Press), that the happiest man on the who’e earth is called Steve Donoghue. Since no one else has ever

ridden the winner in three successive Derbys, no one else who has ever lived has ever enjoyed the same kind and the same degree of distinction as shadows “Steve'’ wherever he goes. If he wer# to ask for a seat in the House of Lords it would conceivably be refused, but there can be few wishes,* in the world in which he lives and moves and has his being, which he cannot now instantly gratify. Yet it docs not appear that he lost his head or said or did anything braggart or stupid, when he reined in Papyrus and found himself famous. Captain Heath, of -Dai!,, Chronicle, seems to have been among the first of the snorting writers to interview the hero in the weighing room, but all he got in reply to his qurey—so inevitable and "-et so stupid as to what it felt like to ride three. Derby winners, was, “Don’t ask me, r I feel nothing but happiness And m reality no one else has yet drawn out any more, for although there have been interviews with, and even artieJes iv, Stephen Donoghue since, the reporters have done the talking and writing, and he just the smiling and asanting. Pacing may play tricks with our pockets, but if 1 can exalt a man to such a giddy eminence without affectand ,h o^ ad ’ “ K,V alS ° Serve old Enland who merely stand W —-