Donegal Racing
$735,335
2025 earnings
15%
2025 wins
$15,956,297
lifetime earnings
racing Record
2025 Stats
Career Stats
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9
Firsts
166
5
Seconds
116
8
Thirds
137
37
Unplaced
501
59
Starts
920
$735,335
Earnings
$15,956,297
$12,463
Earnings / Start
$17,344
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Bio
Des Moines attorney Jerry Crawford (pictured) and nine partners formed Donegal Racing in 2008 with the goal of buying a colt that might make it to the Kentucky Derby. They put up $500,000 to purchase eight colts at auction and got to the Derby with their first swing. The most expensive of the original group was Paddy O'Prado, who finished third in the 2010 Kentucky Derby and won five graded turf stakes before an injury forced him into retirement with earnings of $1.7 million. He is standing at Spendthrift Farm.
Des Moines attorney Jerry Crawford (pictured) and nine partners formed Donegal Racing in 2008 with the goal of buying a colt that might make it to the Kentucky Derby. They put up $500,000 to purchase eight colts at auction and got to the Derby with their first swing. The most expensive of the original group was Paddy O'Prado, who finished third in the 2010 Kentucky Derby and won five graded turf stakes before an injury forced him into retirement with earnings of $1.7 million. He is standing at Spendthrift Farm.
In 2012 Donegal was back in the Kentucky Derby with dual Grade 1 winner Dullahan, who also finished third in the Derby. Later that year Dullahan won the Grade 1 Pacific Classic against older horses. Donegal also owns multiple graded stakes winner Finnegans Wake in partnership and has campaigned graded stakes winners Cleburne and O'Prado Again.
Donegal is perhaps best known for campaigning Keen Ice, winner of the 2015 Travers Stakes and the only horse to defeat American Pharoah during his Triple Crown season. Keen Ice also finished third in the Belmont Stakes and second in the Haskell Invitational Stakes.
Crawford and Donegal campaigned another exciting Kentucky Derby candidate in 2022 as Mo Donegal delivered a powerful performance in his final prep race for the first jewel of the Triple Crown, closing with a sustained late surge to reel in pacesetter Early Voting by a neck in the $750,000 Wood Memorial Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets April 9 at Aqueduct. He completed the 1 1/8 miles in 1:47.96 with a final eighth of a mile in about 12 1/5 seconds to bank 100 qualifying points for the Derby, guaranteeing his spot in the starting gate May 7 at Churchill Downs.
Mike Repole’s Repole Stable bought a minority interest in Mo Donegal prior to the colt’s Derby start. He ran a solid fifth in the 148th run for the roses, rallying late after breaking from the inside post position. After five weeks’ rest, Mo Donegal returned to win the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets on June 11, giving Crawford’s syndicate its first win in a Triple Crown race.
