Cherry Hill

The best version of Cherry Hill tends to appear over seven furlongs to a mile — at those distances, the horse has won 1 from 8 races, which works out to roughly 1 in every 8, or about 12%. That is a modest return, but it is meaningfully better than the overall record, which lands at just 1 in every 20 (5%). In other words, distance does matter here. Cherry Hill competes almost exclusively at Class 6, the lowest rung of British racing, where the competition is limited but the winning has still proved difficult — just 1 win from 12 races at that level, or roughly 1 in every 12.

The yard responsible is Dominic Ffrench Davis, based in the famous training village of Lambourn in Berkshire, a place that has produced champions for generations. The stable has sent out 10 winners this season, so there is clearly ability in the yard — Cherry Hill just hasn't been the one delivering it. A break of 74 days since the last run is worth noting. Trainers sometimes use a short spell away from the track to freshen a horse up, and Cherry Hill has occasionally shown a little more spark after time off, finishing fourth last time before the run of poor results set in. Whether the break has done the trick remains to be seen, but at a horse that wins roughly once every 20 attempts, patience is the one thing Cherry Hill asks of everyone watching.