Dante (1942–1956) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse who was the last horse trained in northern England to win the English Derby.
In 1945 he was beaten when favourite for the 2000 Guineas but won the Derby, despite being afflicted by an eye condition which eventually left him completely blind.
In the Free Handicap, a ranking of the year's best two-year-olds, Dante was rated the best British juvenile of 1944, one pound ahead of Court Martial.
[6] At age three, Dante attracted a large crowd for his reappearance in the Roseberry Stakes at Stockton Racecourse in April and won impressively by four lengths at odds of 1/10.
[7] He was then sent to Newmarket for the 2,000 Guineas and started even money favourite in a field of twenty runners, despite reports that he had suffered an eye problem two days before the race.
It was initially thought that he had been injured by a piece of grit: in fact he was suffering the early stages of a degenerative disease which eventually blinded him.
Ridden by Nevett, Dante was towards the rear of the field in the early stages but accelerated past the opposition in the final quarter mile[11] and won by two lengths from Midas, who beat Court Martial by a head for second place.