Queen’s devotion to horses and a day out at the races
Throughout generations of the royal family there has been a huge interest in horse racing and a passion for the sport belongs especially to Queen Elizabeth II.
The Queen owns many thoroughbred racing horses, inheriting the breeding and racing stock of her late father King George VI in 1952.
Her majesty closely monitors the progress of her current and future champions at the Royal Stud at Hampton Court as well as studs at Sandringham and Wolferton in Norfolk and Polhampton in Berkshire.
One major entry in the horse racing calendar is Royal Ascot every third week of June.
This is an event her majesty never misses and she has been attending the event since 1945, when she went along as a young princess.
The Queen has not missed the annual Royal Meeting since her Coronation in 1953, and traditionally presents The Gold Cup and The Diamond Jubilee Stakes each year. In 2013, The Queen’s filly Estimate triumphed in Ascot’s showpiece race The Gold Cup – the first time The Gold Cup had been won by a reigning monarch.
The Queen even has a horse race named after her: The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.
The race is a group one flat horse race open to horses aged three years or older. It is run at Ascot over a distance of one mile and it is scheduled to take place as part of British Champions Day each year in October.
The event was established in
2013 saw The Queen’s filly Estimate triumph in the Ascot Gold Cup
Silks are purple and scarlet jacket with gold braid and black cap
1955, two years after Elizabeth II’s coronation, and it was originally held in September.
It was created when a race called the Knights’ Royal Stakes was renamed in honour of Queen Elizabeth II. The first three winners were all trained in France.
Another famous race her majesty regularly attends is the Derby at Epsom, also in June.
Despite her intense schedule, The Queen is so passionate about racing that she always finds time to enjoy her racing passion at various famous and less famous races throughout the country. The Queen’s registered racing silks, also used by her father and great-grandfather, King Edward VII, are a purple and scarlet jacket with gold braiding, with black cap.
Her majesty was named British flat racing Champion Owner in 1954 and 1957, the first reigning monarch ever to do so twice.
And she has enjoyed racing success with her horse Dunfermline winning two of the classics, the Epsom Oaks and St Leger Stakes, in her Silver Jubilee year of 1977.