Cherimoya (horse)

Cherimoya
Cherimoya in a 1911 photograph by W.A. Rouch.
Sire	Cherry Tree
Grandsire	Hampton
Dam	Svelte
Damsire	St. Simon
Sex	Mare
Foaled	4 May 1908
Country	United Kingdom
Colour	Bay
Breeder	William Broderick Cloete
Owner	1) William Broderick Cloete 2) Sir Thomas Dewar
Trainer	Charles Marsh
Record	1:1-0-0
Earnings	£4950 ($24,750)
Major wins
Epsom Oaks (1911)

Cherimoya (4 May 1908 – 1927) was a Thoroughbred racehorse that won the 1911 Epsom Oaks in the only start of her racing career. Cherimoya was bred and owned by South African mining magnate William Broderick Cloete, who was killed in 1915 during the sinking of the Lusitania. Her most notable offspring were the fillies Sunny Moya and Una Cameron. Cherimoya was euthanised in 1927.

Cherimoya was bred by W. Broderick Cloete and was foaled on 4 May 1908 at his Hare Park estate near London. Cloete was a South African mining entrepreneur who had campaigned the 1885 2000 Guineas winner Paradox. Cherimoya's sire, Cherry Tree, was bred by Cloete and was sold as a yearling in 1892 to American turfman Marcus Daly for 4,000 guineas; Daly relocated him to his Bitterroot Stud in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana. He was named Matt Byrnes (after a noted horse trainer) in the United States and raced with some success. Cloete repurchased the horse from Daly for $25,000 in October 1897 and renamed him Cherry Tree. Cherimoya's dam, Svelte, was also bred by Cloete and was not a successful racehorse. She was exclusively bred to Cherry Tree whilst owned by Cloete, producing five full-siblings to Cherimoya.

Cherimoya was a described by The Sydney Morning Herald as a "fine, substantial, big boned filly."

Racing for Broderick Cloete, Cherimoya won the Epsom Oaks in the only official start of her racing career. Cloete's racing colours were a crimson shirt with black and white sleeves and a black cap. Cherimoya was trained by Charles Marsh at Newmarket and was a promising racehorse in her two-year-old trials. A few days before her anticipated first start at Sandown in the National Breeders' Produce Stakes, Cherimoya cut one of her fetlock joints after an exercise session when she was startled by a bird and fell over "a heap of stones" used for mending a nearby road. The injury prevented Cherimoya from competing the rest of the season and she was sidelined until her start in the Oaks.

On 2 June, Cherimoya started in the Oaks Stakes in a field of 21 horses. Cherimoya held a good position from the start of the race, taking the lead a quarter of a mile from the finish and winning easily by three lengths over the betting favourite Tootles. Cherimoya was an unanticipated winner, factoring at 20 to 1 odds in the betting pools, and her win reportedly left "the spectators too dumbfounded to cheer." She was ridden by a 16-year-old apprentice jockey named Fred Winter, later a successful horse trainer and the father of champion jockey and trainer Fred Winter.