Apatura

Lingfield: 12.45 Apatura Dik, 1.20 Magot De Grugy, 1.55 Five Dream, 3.05 Mort De Rire.

THE creme de la creme of the butterfly world, Apatura iris, as Julius Caesar no doubt called it, is the secondlargest species of butterfly visible in Britain and the most widely admired and sought after.

Favourite Apatura King never went a yard in the men's open, which brought a triumph for a horse of whom owner-trainer Charles Fox said: "It's a miracle he's on a racecourse." This was Red Brook Lad, who had suffered a fractured ulna (a bone in the foreleg), when jumped on by another runner after falling at the United Services meeting in 2001.

nRobert Alner saddled first and third in the amateur riders' handicap chase, in which his Cheltenham specialist Honey Mount came with an irresistible late run under Robert Walford to take the measure of Gigi Beach and Apatura King.

While partnering eight-year-old Apatura Cherry - a horse trained by his brother Tim - at Littlewindsor in March, the pair took a fall.

Family horse Nadjati gained his fifth win in a row with a five-length defeat of Apatura King in the hunters' chase.

Apatura King proved his master, providing a 21st win of the season for trainer Louise Alner, beating her personal best by one.

Favourite Apatura King (fifth) disappointed the odds-layers, as had the ladies' open hot-pot Mizyan, who was made to look one-paced when Mine's A Gin went past.

Robert Alner stable lad Richard Young was left in command of the mixed open on the Louise Alner-trained Apatura King after Still In Business (Tim Mitchell) lost 20 lengths with a slip before the fourth-last, but Louise (legged up by her trainer father) had to rest content with third on the favourite, Young Brave, in the novice riders' race.