Chamant was a bay horse bred at the Haras Dangu stud of his owner Comte Frederic de Lagrange.

Lagrange had extensive racing and breeding interests on both sides of the English Channel in partnership with his compatriot Claude Joachim Lefèvre.

[2] Despite not yet being fully fit, he began his racing career shortly afterwards, when he finished unplaced behind Warren Hastings in the July Stakes.

[4] At Doncaster in September, Chamant finished unplaced behind the filly Lady Golightly in the Champagne Stakes and third in another race at the same meeting.

[5] At Newmarket in October, Lagrange's colt started a 20/1 outsider for the year's most valuable two-year-old race, the six furlong Middle Park Plate, for which Lady Golightly was made 2/1 favourite.

Despite carrying a five pound weight penalty for winning the Middle Park Plate, he won impressively from Plunger to establish himself as the best two-year-old seen in Britain that season.

[11] Following a large gamble on a previously unraced colt named Morier, Chamant started 9/4 second favourite in a field of eleven runners for the 2000 Guineas over the Rowley Mile course on 2 May.

[13] A telegram reporting the result to Australia became so garbled that it was interpreted as referring to the ongoing Russo-Turkish War and newspapers described an action in which 2,000 men were led to victory by "Chamat Croun" and "Prince Silvio".

[17] A back injury sustained in the 2000 Guineas had deteriorated throughout the season and by autumn the horse was also beginning to develop respiratory trouble which may have been a form of Roarer Syndrome.