Coronation ran twice as a two-year-old in the summer of 1840. On his first appearance on 18 August he easily won a four-runner Sweepstakes for two- and three-year-old at Oxford Racecourse from a filly named Pelerine. He followed up by beating two opponents in a Sweepstakes at Warwick, winning by a neck from St Cloud, at odds of 1/4. After the race he was described as "the finest two-year-old" of the season and bookmakers offered him at odds of 18/1 for the following year's Derby.
