page_title: Cherry Lass
section_title: 1905: three-year-old season
hierarchical_section_title: Cherry Lass / Racing career / 1905: three-year-old season
caption_attribution_description: English: Painting of British racehorse Cherry Lass by Emil Adam (1843-1924). Circa 1905
context_page_description: Cherry Lass, was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare who won two British Classic Races in 1905. In a racing career which lasted from summer 1904 until October 1905 she ran fifteen times and won nine races. As a three-year-old she won the 1000 Guineas over one mile at Newmarket and The Oaks over one and a half miles at Epsom Downs Racecourse a month later. She went on to win the St. James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Nassau Stakes at Goodwood before finishing third when favourite for the St Leger Stakes. She was then retired to stud where she showed some promise as a broodmare before her death in 1914.
context_section_description: On 5 May Cherry Lass started the 5/4 favourite in a large, but apparently undistinguished field of nineteen, for the 1000 Guineas over Newmarket's Rowley mile course. Ridden by George McCall, Cherry Lass was boxed in and struggled to obtain room for a challenge and then lost ground by swerving when an opening appeared. Under a vigorous ride from McCall, she took the lead a furlong from the finish and won by a length from Koorhaan, with Jongleuse three lengths back in third. Cherry Lass appeared to have bumped Koorhaan in the closing stages, but the owner of the runner-up declined to lodge an objection. The win gave Robinson a double as he had trained the colt Vedas to win the 2000 Guineas over the same course and distance two days earlier.
  Herbert Jones took over the ride on Cherry Lass in the Oaks four weeks later and she started the 4/5 favourite against eleven rivals. Before the race she appeared rather excitable and nervous, but was extremely impressive with the Sporting Life describing her as "the Queen of the Paddock- a real beauty". After Queen of the Earth made the early running, Jones sent Cherry Lass into the lead a mile from the finish and the favourite won by three lengths. Queen of the Earth was six lengths clear of the rest in second place. Her winning time of 2:38.0 broke the race record and was faster than the time recorded by Cicero in the Epsom Derby two days before. Her performance persuaded some observers to revise their poor opinion of the year's crop of fillies and some speculated that she would have won the Derby.
  At Royal Ascot later in June, Cherry Lass was tried against colts in the St James's Palace Stakes and beat her three rivals at odds of 6/100. Second place went to Polymelus, later to be the five time champion sire. The meeting was a good one for her family as her younger brother Black Arrow was an impressive winner of the Coventry Stakes. In July, Cherry Lass beat Queen of the Earth again in the Duchess of York Plate at Hurst Park and won the Nassau Stakes over ten furlongs at Goodwood at odds of 1/9.
  In the build-up to the St Leger in autumn, Cherry Lass was regarded as one of the three leading contenders, alongside Cicero and the French colt Val d'Or, who had beaten the Derby winner in the Eclipse Stakes. When Cicero was withdrawn with a leg injury, and Val d'Or was  prevented from crossing the English Channel from France by rough weather, Cherry Lass was made 6/4 favourite for the final classic at Doncaster on 13 September. The result of the race was a major upset, with the outsider Challacombe winning easily by three lengths from Polymelus in record time. Cherry Lass led the race in the straight but dropped back in the closing stages to finish third, and ending her bid for the Fillies Triple Crown in British horse-racing. In October, Cherry Lass contested the Newmarket Oaks, in which she conceded nine pounds to the Park Hill Stakes winner Adula. Despite being opposed in the betting and running over a supposedly unsuitable distance of fourteen furlongs she won the race "in a canter". Her win took her earnings for the season to £13,119, making her the biggest money winner of the year in Britain. Her winnings enabled Robinson to claim the title of champion trainer whilst Hall Walker took the owners' championship. In November, Cherry Lass was fourth in the one and a quarter mile Free Handicap run at Newmarket, losing to the colt Outbreak.
caption: Cherry Lass, by Emil Adam
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