page_title: St. Amant (horse)
section_title: 1904: three-year-old season
hierarchical_section_title: St. Amant (horse) / Racing career / 1904: three-year-old season
caption_attribution_description: Caricature of Leopold de Rothschild (1845-1917). Caption read "Racing and Sporting".
context_page_description: St. Amant was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from 1903 to 1906, he ran twenty-one times and won six races. As a three-year-old in 1904, he won both the 2000 Guineas Stakes and the Derby, but he failed to win the English Triple Crown when he was well beaten in the St. Leger by the filly Pretty Polly. He was kept in training for two more seasons but won only one more race before being retired.
context_section_description: On his three-year-old debut, St. Amant started odds on favourite for a Biennial Stakes at Newmarket in which he was beaten by His Majesty. He showed an unpleasant side to his character by attempting to bite the rider of the winner during the race, and was fitted with blinkers from then on.  He was nevertheless made 11/4 favourite for the 2000 Guineas on 27 April. After tracking Henry The First in the early stages, he took the lead two furlongs out, pulled well clear and won easily, beating John O'Gaunt by four lengths. His winning time was more than a second faster than that set by Pretty Polly in the 1000 Guineas at the same meeting. St. Amant's temperament problems resurfaced in the Newmarket Stakes over ten furlongs on 12 May, in which he "declined to exert himself" and finished third behind Henry The First and John O'Gaunt. The performance led some to question the colt's attitude and "courage", with one observer describing him as a "thorough rogue" and his odds for the Derby drifted out from 9/4 favourite to 5/1.
  At Epsom St. Amant was ridden as at Newmarket by Kempton Cannon, in an unusually small field of eight runners. The French-trained colt Gouvernant started 7/4 favourite in front of a crowd which included the King and the Prince of Wales. The race was run in a violent thunderstorm, which appeared to adversely affect some of the runners including Gouvernant and Henry The First but St. Amant broke quickly, opened up a clear lead, and was never headed. He won "in a canter" by three lengths from John O'Gaunt, with St Denis six lengths further back in third, being greeted by "deafening cheers" from the crowd. The enthusiastic reception was largely due to the popularity of St. Amant's owner, "Leo" Rothschild, who was well known for his charitable work. As part of the celebrations Rothschild distributed coal, groceries and money to the widows of Newmarket, and gave half a crown to every schoolchild in the neighborhood.
  On 7 September, St. Amant attempted to become the second successive Triple Crown winner in the St Leger. Pretty Polly was pursuing her own version of the Triple Crown, having won both of the fillies' classics and the first meeting between the pair since their two-year-old season was highly anticipated. St. Amant was sent to the front after two furlongs in an attempt to repeat the tactics employed at Epsom, but soon after half way he "began to sulk" and dropped back. The filly won the race easily at 2/5 with St. Amant tailed off last of the six runners. He ran in a further six races before the end of the season, at least five of them at Newmarket, but failed to win. He finished a poor seventh of the nine runners behind Rock Sand in the Jockey Club Stakes, third to Lochryan in the Great Foal Stakes, third to Henry The First in the Gatwick Stakes, second to Sansovino in the Surrey Stakes and third to Bachelor's Button in the Champion Stakes. During this period he was described as "a vicious, ill-tempered brute" who had to be fitted with a muzzle during exercise.
  At the end of the season St. Amant was sent to be exercised over hurdles at the stables of Tom Cannon Jr at Chattis Hill in Hampshire, in an attempt to "restore his courage".
caption: Leopold de Rothschild, by Leslie Ward, 1884.
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