AND THEY’RE ORF!
Queen’s grandson Peter Phillips unveils plan to run horse race outside Palace
IT is known as the sport of kings and is a passion of the Queen.
So ambitious plans to bring horse racing to Brtiain’s city centres naturally have a strong royal connection.
And the scheme to boost the sport’s popularity could include staging races along The Mall past Buckingham Palace, the Queen’s grandson Peter Phillips announced yesterday.
Courses would be created by laying tons of wax, sand and fibre on roads. Mr Phillips, whose mother Princess Anne is a keen equestrian, said he had discussed his plans – including having the Palace as a venue – with the Queen.
And with typical royal outspokenness, he proclaimed: ‘This is a bloody good idea.’
Mr Phillips, 41, was speaking at the famous Aintree racecourse in Liverpool, where the city racing concept was demonstrated with three trial races over three furlongs on part of the old motor racing circuit inside the course.
He hopes that meetings will be held across the UK and around the world, with the inaugural event next year.
Mr Phillips said the surreal image of thoroughbreds ridden by some of the world’s top jockeys – such as Frankie Dettori – racing past Buckingham Palace with the Queen watching from the balcony could be just two years away.
‘The Mall and Constitution Hill will not be the first venue but it is somewhere we have looked at as an option,’ he said. ‘We are talking to a number of different cities both here in the UK and overseas.’
Discussions have taken place with the office of London Mayor Sadiq Khan, but permission to race up The Mall lies with the Royal Parks. Organisers City Racing, working in conjunction with the Jockey Club, believe it will attract a younger audience and boost the sport in the same way as Twenty20 has cricket.
The demonstration was designed to prove the feasibility of racing on adapted city streets and was watched by representatives from Dubai, Johannesburg, Melbourne, Saudi Arabia and Las Vegas.
Locally trained horses will be used but it is hoped to recruit eight of the world’s best jockeys in a Grand Prix-style competition. It will take up to 72 hours to lay a track and take it up, with 3,000 tons of material needed to cover road surfaces. It is likely that jockeys would not be allowed to use whips to avoid upsetting new fans.
Mr Phillips’ involvement will raise some eyebrows. He was roundly criticised after persuading the Queen to let him mark her 90th birthday by staging a lunch on The Mall in honour of the charities and organisations she supports. It emerged that SEL was paid £750,000 to organise the event, double the amount that the lunch raised for good causes. Charities were asked to pay £150 per person to attend.
Buckingham Palace insisted that the idea had been subjected to due diligence, but it subsequently was revealed that the contract had not been put out to tender.