YOU know a fairy story because of its happy ending. But this year’s Royal Ascot fairy story happened at the start. On the first day. In the first race.

Accidental Agent was bred by Gaie Johnson Houghton. A son of Delegator out of the Xaar mare Roodle, who won two of her 16 races and was never rated higher than 90, he went to the sales in October 2015, an entry in Tattersalls’ Book 2.

He reached 8,000 guineas and was taken back home again.

Trained by her breeder’s daughter Eve, he showed talent as a two-year-old. He won at Chepstow and he won the valuable Tattersalls October Auction Stakes on his final run as a juvenile.

He progressed as a three-year-old and he started to show a liking for Ascot, winning the Challenge Cup there in October last year and finishing fourth in the Balmoral Handicap there on Champions’ Day.

He didn’t have a lot of luck in the Lockinge Stakes on his second run this year, he ran better than his finishing position in sixth suggests, but even so, he went into Tuesday’s Queen Anne Stakes as one of the outsiders. He was the 14th highest rated of the 15 horses in the race, and he had a stone to find on the top-rated one.

Then he won the Queen Anne Stakes. And they all lived happily ever after.