Gohanna (1790 – April 1815) was a British racehorse that was second to Waxy in the 1793 Epsom Derby and was a successful sire in the late 18th and early 19th century.
Both colts were similarly bred, their dams sired by Herod and their paternal lineage tracing to Eclipse and ultimately the Darley Arabian.
Mercury was a successful racehorse over varied distances in his three-year racing career, retiring in 1784 to Lord Egremont's stud and remaining there until his death in April 1793.
[2] Gohanna's dam, an unnamed mare sired by Herod, was bred by Sir Lawrence Dundas in 1779 and produced 12 foals between 1787 and her death in 1807.
Gohanna's full-brother, Precipitate, was the Herod Mare's first foal[3] and was a successful racer in the 1790s, winning the King's Plate, before he was sold to William Lightfoot and exported to the United States in the autumn of 1803.
[5] Gohanna was a strong, stocky bay horse on short legs with a small white star on his forehead.
His proportions were more fitting a hunter than a racehorse and his physical appearance was vastly different than Waxy's who was taller and of a more delicate build.
For the first two years of Gohanna's racing career he was known as Lord Egremont's bay colt by Mercury or "Brother to Precipitate" due to him being a full-brother of the well-known racer.
Waxy pushed Gohanna (a "bump" in modern racing terms) at the track's first turn, taking and maintaining the lead to become an "easy winner" of the Derby.
[13] Three of the top four finishers, the exception being Gohanna, were sired by Pot-8-Os[10] The meeting was also notable for a "dreadful accident," a collision between a servant on horseback with the colt Exiseman, the winner of the race after the Derby, and for the antics of John Lade dressed in a "loose undress of blue and white striped trowsers" asking the crowd to determine whether he was "the captain of a privateer or an ambassador from the Great Mogul.
[21] A few hours after the win, Gohanna lost the four-mile Duke of Richmond's Plate for horses bred in Sussex, losing to his old rival Waxy at equal weights.
[7] On 17 May at Guildford in Gohanna's first start of the season, he ran against Waxy and Mr. Wilkins's horse Monoculus in the His Majesty's Plate of 100 guineas run over three four-mile heats.
At Lewes, he was beaten by Mr. Durand's colt Play or Pay for the County Plate and at Egham he walked over for a 45-guinea sweepstakes race.