"THE winning bell at the Manor House, always rung when a race of £1,000 or over is won, was pulled so lustily that the stout iron chain broke," said The Northern Echo, reporting on its front page one of the great "romances of the turf". Little did the reporter know that the bell would never be rung again for that horse as it would never run again – it was a great romance that did not have a happy ending.

This week's annual Dante meeting at York has always perplexed me: why do horses go jumping through a blazing inferno?

But the meeting has nothing to do with Dante, the 13th Century Italian author of the Divine Comedy, but everything to do with Dante, a wartime racehorse.

Dante was bred at the Manor House Stud in Middleham, North Yorkshire, in 1942, and owned by Sir Eric Ohlson, a shipping magnate with connections to Hull and Scarborough (in fact, Sir Eric bought Dante's mother, Rosy Legend, from the Furness family of Hartlepool shipowners).

He tried to sell Dante as a yearling at Newmarket, but there were no takers, so it went back into training at Middleham.

And Dante did well. In 1944 as a two-year-old, it won its six races and was nicknamed "the idol of the north".

In its first race of 1945, in front of a huge crowd at Stockton racecourse, it romped home by four lengths at overwhelming odds of 1/10, and was immediately installed as evens favourite for the 2,000 Guineas.

But two days before, its left eye clouded over. A bit of grit was blamed, and so it was a major surprise when it came second by a neck – the winner, Court Martial, sneaking up it on its blind side.

A Harley Street oculist was called in, and Dante went into the Derby as the 100/30 favourite – it was now "the Hope of the North".

"All Yorkshire is on him," said the Echo's front page on the morning of the race. "Jockey Willie Nevett does not think that they will get another disappointment."

Nevett was right. In front of a 30,000 crowd, including the king and queen, Dante lurked at the back, with its good right eye on the field, until the final furlongs when it accelerated past Court Martial to gain revenge and win by two lengths – the first Northern Derby-winner since Pretender, trained at what is now Forbidden Corner near Middleham, in 1869.

"Dante has confounded his critics," said the Echo. "Many people said a Northern horse could never win the Derby. Well, they have their answer."

So lustily was the victory celebrated that the stables' bell broke, and next morning the Echo featured jockey Nevett and his three children feasting on the strawberries of success that he had brought them from Newmarket.

The paper also said that Dante was the odds-on favourite to win that autumn's St Leger.

But over the summer, rumours about its eye condition strengthened and, on August 25, it was withdrawn, totally blinded by an infection called uveitis.

Dante, winner of eight of its nine races and unbeaten in five at Stockton, never ran again. It retired to stud at Bedale, where it died in 1956. Two years later, when the June meeting at York was established, it was named after "the idol of the north".