Chatelaine (horse)

Chatelaine failed to win in six starts as a two-year-old in 1932. Her best efforts came when finishing fourth in the Rous Memorial Stakes at Goodwood and in the Imperial Produce Stakes at Kempton Park Racecourse when she was a close third to colt Gino.[7] She did not receive a weight in the official Free Handicap in which, unprecededently, the fillies Betty, Brown Betty and Myrobella jointly topped the ratings ahead of the best of the male juveniles.[8]

In the spring of 1933 Chatelaine contested the 1000 Guineas over the Rowley Mile at Newmarket Racecourse on 28 April and ran creditably to finish seventh of the twenty-two runners in a race which saw Brown Betty win from Fur Tor and Myrobella. At Epsom Racecourse on 2 of June Chatelaine, ridden by Sam Wragg, started a 25/1 outsider for the 155th running of the Oaks Stakes. The best-fancied fillies in the fourteen-runner field were Brown Betty, Lord Derby's Versicle and Lord Astor's Betty. The race took place in fine weather in front of a large crowd which included King George V and Queen Mary. Chatelaine upset the odds as she went to the front in the last quarter mile won by one and a half lengths from Solfatara, with the fast-finishing Fur Tor two lengths back in third place ahead of Brown Betty.[3] Billy the goat, who had accompanied her to Epsom was reportedly there to greet her when she returned to her stable after the race.[4]

On her first appearance after her Epsom victory, Chatelaine was dropped back in distance for the Coronation Stakes over one mile at Royal Ascot and finished unplaced behind Betty.[9] At York Racecourse in September Chatelaine finished second to the Epsom Derby runner-up King Salmon in the Great Yorkshire Stakes over fourteen furlongs. Later that month she won the Scarbrough Stakes at Doncaster.[10]

Chatelaine ran twice at Newmarket in autumn. The ten furlong Champion Stakes on 11 October saw the filly produce arguably her best performance. Ridden by Gordon Richards she dead-heated for first place with the Aga Khan's four-year-old colt Dastur after what was described as a "great duel", with the advantage passing back and forth over the last quarter mile.[11] In the Jockey Club Cup on two weeks later she was tried over two and a quarter miles and finished second of the three runners, beaten one and a half lengths by Nitsichin, a five-year-old mare whose wins included the Irish Oaks and the Cesarewitch.[12]

As a four-year-old, Chatelaine's form was disappointing. She came home last of the three runners behind King Salmon and the American challenger Mate in the Coronation Cup and finished unplaced in the Ascot Gold Cup, won by Felicitation.[10] She did win a race over an official distance one and a half miles at Hurst Park, and survived an objection by the owner of the runner-up, who claimed that the race had been incorrectly run over a longer distance.[13]