CHESHAM STAKES

(LISTED)

THERE will be very few more moving stories this summer than that involving Arthur Kitt, winner of the opening Chesham Stakes at 13/2, because the Camelot colt is out of Ceiling Kitty, who died giving birth to him.

Making eye-catching progress after briefly finding himself outpaced, Arthur Kitt led inside the final furlong and held the sustained late challenge of Carlisle winner Nate The Great by a neck with Duke Of Hazzard well held in third.

Mark Johnston’s Natalie’s Joy looked very short at 5/4 after beating an ordinary field at Goodwood and could finish only seventh.

“Richard Kingscote said it was only when he gave him a smack at half-way that he really picked up and he doesn’t actually know what he’s doing,” said winning trainer Tom Dascombe.

“But I told ‘Bert’ (Betfair founder Andrew Black of Chasemore Farm) back in March that he’d win at Haydock and come straight here so it’s nice to get one right!”

This was Dascombe’s first winner at the royal meeting since Ceiling Kitty herself in the 2012 Queen Mary. He and Black were understandably visibly moved in the unsaddling enclosure.

“He had one of his back legs stuck around his neck and that is nearly always fatal for the mare,” Black related. “He had to be cut out and our vet Pat managed it but he had to be resuscitated over and over again. I couldn’t believe it when I went back down at 1am and he was still alive.

“We sent out for a foster mare and we still have her at Chasemore Farm.

“Arthur had a badly twisted leg which took a long time to heal. You wonder if it’s fate and he’s going to be something special.”