On completing his apprenticeship, Elijah went to work at Dobson Peacock's stable in Middleham, Yorkshire where success seemed harder to come by.

In 1913, the last full season before the outbreak of World War I, he won his solitary Classic on Night Hawk in the St Leger[1] and had other big race wins including the Portland Handicap at Doncaster on Hornet's Beauty[5] and in the same year, his win total was back up to 79.

In the 1917 Champion Stakes Donoghue rode Gay Crusader, a horse which needed to be given a lead.

The starter threatened he would report the jockeys to the stewards, they started at a slow canter, then Donoghue had the idea to crack Nassovian on the rear with his whip.

Nassovian set off at speed, Gay Crusader tracked him before pulling past and winning comfortably.

His first wife died in the summer of 1912 and shortly after he married actress Maudie Wood, sister of music hall star Marie Lloyd, in Brixton, London.