Tribute to Her Majesty The Queen
By Emma Berry
As the solemnity of the period of national mourning and Her Majesty the Queen’s funeral subsides, now comes the time to reflect upon the significant contribution made to British racing and breeding by Queen Elizabeth II.
The nation and Commonwealth have lost a great leader, and the TBA has lost its patron, whose long-term commitment to the Association since 1954, and to the betterment of the thoroughbred, was every bit in keeping with her duty to the country.
During the many touching tributes in the immediate aftermath of Her Majesty’s death, it was notable how often her love of horses, and in particular horseracing, was referenced. All of us involved in this great sport have been fortunate to have had the Queen shine her light on it for so many years. Indeed, her long association with the thoroughbred will continue beyond her passing in the yearlings and foals already on the ground, and in the results of the matings which were still being meticulously planned with the Queen’s racing manager John Warren through this summer.
Highclere’s trainer Major Dick Hern pulled off an arguably even more important Classic double for the monarch when Dunfermline won the Oaks and the St Leger in 1977, brining extra cause for celebration in the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.
Classic success eluded the Queen in the ensuing years, though she did again have a horse placed in the 2011 Derby when the Dante Stakes winner Carlton House, a gift to Her Majesty from Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum, finished third behind Pour Moi. Later exported to Gai Waterhouse’s Australian stable, Carlton House ended his career with another Group 1 placing, this time appropriately in Royal Randwick’s Queen Elizabeth Stakes, just one of many races around the world to have been named in her honour.
There was of course much success to be enjoyed elsewhere in the intervening years. Phantom Gold, trained by Lord Huntingdon to win the Ribblesdale, Geoffrey Freer and St Simon Stakes, became an important broodmare in the Royal Studs and now features as the grand-dam of Group 3 Solario Stakes winner Reach For The Moon.
Blueprint, Interlude, and Call To Mind won Group/Grade 2 races in Britain, France and America, while Right Approach was runner-up in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes and the homebred later became a Group 1 winner in Dubai after being sold to race for Mike de Kock.
Dartmouth’s haul of four Group wins included the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup and the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot, and he is now at Shropshire’s Shade Oak Stud. Another of the Queen’s runners now at stud in France is Galileo’s son Recorder, who won the Group 3 Acomb Stakes 63 years after Aureole had landed the same race within months of the Queen’s accession to the throne.
For those following the sport in more recent years, one horse will remain intrinsically linked to the Queen in having provided her with victory in Royal Ascot’s greatest race. Estimate, trained by Sir Michael Stoute and a present from another fellow owner-breeder, HH Aga Khan IV, made Queen Elizabeth II the first monarch to own the winner of the Gold Cup, and few will forget the unbridled joy with which she cheered the great staying filly home at Ascot that day in the company of John Warren. Of course it had been Estimate’s second triumph at Royal Ascot as she had been the appropriate winner of the Queen’s Vase a year earlier.
Last year, as the country embarked on its recovery from the Covid lockdowns and racing returned almost to normal, the Queen enjoyed her most successful season numerically on the racecourse, with 36 winners including five stakes victories, most notably the Group 3 wins of Light Refrain and Reach For The Moon. This achievement was recognised at the TBA Flat Breeders' Awards where the Queen was awarded the TBA Silver Salver.
Her winners in what transpired to be the final year of her life have included the Andrew Balding-trained Group 2 Temple Stakes winner King’s Lynn, named for the Norfolk town not far from where he was bred at Sandringham. Fittingly, the gelding who would become her final Group winner is by Cable Bay, who is currently resident at Highclere, the family home of her former racing manager and dear friend Lord Carnarvon, who was succeeded in his role by his son-in-law John Warren.
Reportedly as engaged in the racing action as ever in her final days at Balmoral, the Queen’s colours were carried to victory one final time during her reign on 6 September by the two-year-old Love Affairs, from the Lambourn stable of the newest trainer on her roster, Clive Cox.
So ended, only two days later, one of the greatest love affairs with the turf with the passing of its greatest patron of the last century. Having missed Royal Ascot for the last few seasons, Queen Elizabeth II was present on QIPCO British Champions Day in October 2021 at her beloved Ascot to receive a commemorative medal marking her induction to the QIPCO British Horseracing Hall of Fame. There could be no more fitting member of that celebrated club.