Garden Path was a big, good-looking brown mare bred by her owner the Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby.
Her sire, Fairway, had been a highly successful racehorse for Lord Derby, winning the St Leger and two runnings of the Champion Stakes.
She was then moved up in class to contest the six furlong Cheveley Park Stakes, the year's most important race for two-year-old fillies in which she finished third to Fair Fame.
[4] Garden Path then ran in the Middle Park Stakes over the same course and distance, in which she was matched against some of the season's leading colts and finished third again behind Orestes and Happy Landing.
[5] In the Free Handicap, a ranking of the season's best juveniles, Garden Path was given a rating of 123 pounds,[3] eight below the top-rated Orestes and five below Fair Fame, the top filly.
She took the lead a quarter of a mile from the finish and held on to win by a head from Growing Confidence,[8] with the future St Leger winner Tehran in third.
During the race however, the filly sustained a serious injury to the suspensory ligaments of her leg[3] and finished tenth behind Ocean Swell, who beat Tehran by a neck.