A full brother to Gohanna (b c 1790), Precipitate was bred at Petworth in Sussex by George O'Brien Wyndham (1751-1837), 3rd Earl of Egremont, and considered to be a horse of great beauty and substance. He stood 15.2 hands and was described as "handsomely marked, of big bone and great muscular strength and powers". Later sold to Virginia, his American owner thought his name appropriate for him, as he wrote "He is truly such a horse as Virgil describes, 'large and full of fire, bold as a lyon, active as a greyhound and in all his movements ether : he rushes forward like a thunderbolt and hesitates at nothing'."

His colour was specifically described as "sorrel" by William Lightfoot [E2:416], which is reminiscent of the General Stud Book entry for Roundhead (sorrel c 1733 Childers), a member of the immediate family of Silverlocks (ch f 1725), who was almost certainly a palomino in colour. Precipitate's sire Mercury (ch c 1778) was a full brother of Queen Mab (ch f 1785), described as a chestnut with a white mane and tail, and who produced Jupiter (ch c 1774).

Precipitate raced with distinction for Lord Egremont for three years, winning a King's Plate and several other plates and prizes. His stud career is noteworthy mainly for the good mares he produced, however, he also got the good winner and sire Bobtail (ch c 1795).

He entered the stud of Richard Watt at Bishop Burton, near Beverley in Yorkshire in 1794 and remained there until 1803, when on the death of Watt he was sold at Tattersall's along with the rest of the stud. Purchased for £250 by William Lightfoot of Sandy Point, Charles City County, Virginia, he was shipped to America in October of 1803. Contrary to the report in the General Stud Book which says he died before landing in 1803, he stood at Sandy Point in 1804, at Thomas Goode's in Chesterfield County in 1805, and at John C Goode's in Mecklenburg County in 1806. He died that year after covering a mare, apparently having "dropt off from her dead".