At the age of twelve he left home and decided to become a jockey after winning a prize for riding a donkey at a circus.

[3] Donoghue was apprenticed to John Porter when he was 14 years old, but ran away after being beaten for allowing a horse to get loose on the gallops.

[4] Donoghue accepted the post of stable jockey to Henry Seymour "Atty" Persse at Stockbridge, Hampshire and had his first major successes in 1913 on the outstanding two-year-old The Tetrarch.

In its more than two-hundred-year history, of the jockeys aboard the fifteen winners, Steve Donoghue is the only one to have ever won the Triple Crown twice.

[5] Despite earning a great deal during his career his "impulsive generosity"[4] and lack of business acumen led to financial difficulties.