A major milestone in British history was reached on Sunday when the Queen became the country’s first monarch to reign for 70 years. All the while, the Queen remained an ardent supporter of Turf. In the first part of a three-part series, John Berry look back on the Queen’s strong relationship with equestrianism.
Racing, the king sport, has been the sport of kings and queens since the dawn of time. In England, the monarch’s love of sport can be traced back at least 500 years to the passion the Stuart kings brought to Newmarket and thus established the town and its Heath as the center of the world. racing. King Charles II famously rode in Heath races, while Queen Anne’s love of sport in the following century led to the racecourse being established on Ascot Heath in 1711, a few blocks from Windsor Castle. a short carriage ride. Racers at Royal Ascot are reminded of her creativity every year when the encounter begins with G1 Queen Anne S.
However, no monarch has made a greater commitment to the sport over a longer period than Queen Elizabeth II, whose 70 years on the throne represent seven decades of greatest patronage. , the most passionate, consistent and knowledgeable any sport has ever had.
Queen Elizabeth II has completely followed in the footsteps of her great-grandfather King Edward VII. However, he spent only a relatively short time (nine years) on the throne, having been aged 59 at the time of his mother Queen Victoria’s death on 22 January 1901, aged 81. Famous no one knows the sport, but he is as passionate as she does not care. His greatest years as an owner (including 1896 when a thoroughbred Persimmon landed at Derby and St Leger; 1897 when Persimmon won the Gold Cup and Eclipse S. was also a Grand National winner, Ambush II) while still Prince of Wales, but he remained an enthusiastic and equally successful patron of the sport after taking the throne. Most notably, he won the Derby for a third time when Minoru entered the Great Race in 1909, the first time a Derby winner was owned by a monarch.
King Edward VII’s focus on racing remained steadfast until the very end. His dying words, on May 6, 1910, came after his son, soon to be King George V, had informed him of his victory that afternoon on the Witch Of horse His The Air on 4.15 at Kempton Park: “Yes, I’ve heard of it. I’m very happy.”
Arguably King Edward VII’s most important act in relation to the development of the royal racing business was the establishment of a racecourse at Sandringham in Norfolk in 1886. A stream of royal winners began. flocked to Sandringham Stud almost immediately, and they still do to this day.
King George V inherited his father’s passion for sports and he passed it on to his sons. He also did much to light the fire in the heart of his young daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth II. In the spring of 1928, he became the first monarch to win 1000 Guineas as owner and rancher with a Scuttle victory, coached by William Jarvis in the royal barn at Egerton House on the western edge. by Newmarket Heath. That evening he wrote in his diary, “I’m so proud to have won my first Classic and I bred her at Sandringham”. He then enthralled his favorite daughter with the story of how the unclean horse, ridden by Joe Childs, played with the fence and rolled over as the tape pulled up but eventually reappeared. best at the end of a thrilling duel with Gordon Richards’ mount. Power.
King George V’s eldest son, future King Edward VIII, while the Prince of Wales is so passionate about the sport that questions are raised in Parliament as MPs disagree on whether the house Future king risks riding neck in races and point – point. Once king, however, King Edward VIII became more famous for causing constitutional debates on subjects to be considerably more serious, resulting in his abdication in favor of his younger brother. himself, who thus became King George VI, on December 11, 1936.
King George VI, the father of our current monarch, was therefore not born to be king, but unexpectedly wore a crown. He did not let these sudden and unexpected events get in the way of his love of racing. Far from it: royal color flourishes in his possession, as confirmed by the famous photograph of him, dressed in military uniform, leading the Sun Chariot into the victor’s circle at the Stadium July in Newmarket following her victory in the 1942 Oaks replacement campaign. She had previously won 1000 Guineas and then completed the Triple Crown by taking the St Leger. Furthermore, the Big Game won that year’s 2000 Guineas, giving the King wins in four of the five Classics. After the war ended, he again won 1000 Guineas when Hypericum scored in 1946, in the presence of Princess Elizabeth to welcome Hyperion’s daughter back to scale.
The eldest of King George VI’s two daughters, Queen Elizabeth II was only 25 years old when her father died on 6 February 1952. Thus began the longest and arguably most successful reign. in British history, a dynasty in which, led by her, led the country through the enormous changes that society had undergone since the Second World War. It was also a dynasty in which her never-ending love of racing made the sport immeasurably richer by the passion of its greatest patron.
For her father, from the point of view of a race car driver, he could not have had a better epitaph than that which appeared in Cope’s Royal Cavalcade of the Turf, published in 1953. King George’s Last High Horse VI was one half of Hypericum’s Straight Deal- sister Above Ban, who enjoyed a glorious season in 1950, winning the Yorkshire Oaks, Park Hill S. and Cesarewitch H. Thoughts on the great six-long Cesarewitch victory At that time, Alfred Cope wrote, “With the cheers of the royal victory ringing in our ears, perhaps the time is right for us to leave a King, who among all the Kings and Queens of Turkey, will be remembered for many years to come as the one who, by his example, lifted the Crown to fame and respect, while his career His turf has given many older generations some traces of the golden hours they once knew when Edward VII was King. “
Becoming Queen at the age of 25 following the death of her father in 1952, Queen Elizabeth II was not crowned until the following year when a splendid ceremony was held at Westminster Abbey – a ceremony the world has seen. can enjoy as this is the first televised coronation. That wasn’t the Queen’s only big event that week, though. In fact, the sport of kings was still imprinted in her consciousness even during that pivotal time. The coronation came on Tuesday, June 2, and when the Derby took place four days later, she was thrilled to have one of the leading opportunities: Hyperion colt Aureole, a close relative of Hypericum. , who won the previous Lingfield Derby Test. month.
Queen Elizabeth II took over ownership of the royal cord after the death of her father the previous year. Before that, she owned an Apartment winner: Astrakhan, who was given to her by Aga Khan III as a wedding gift in 1947 and who won the maiden race at Hurst Park in color. Her own color scheme is ‘magenta, purple-rimmed sleeves, black hat’. Her first winner as Queen was the 3-year-old Hyperion colt Choir Boy at Newmarket in the spring of 1952, but he didn’t race that day in royal service: in while the court was in mourning, it was decided that any royal athlete should wear the colors of the Duke of Norfolk. The mourning period was over by the time the Lancashire Oaks were run in Manchester, and the Stream Of Light’s win in that race gave the Queen her first royal success. Her best horse in 1952, however, was 2-year-old Aureole, who made her triumphant debut in Acomb S. at the Ebor Meeting in York before finishing at Middle Park S. in Newmarket in the fall.
Aureole’s second place in the 1953 Derby behind Pinza (whose driver Gordon Richards had just been knighted at his coronation) was fantastic. The magic continued at Royal Ascot where Choir Boy, who had to miss the rest of last season after splitting an ankle, completed a stunning comeback from injury by winning the Royal Cup Hunt. Another special event took place that week when the Queen appointed her trainer Cecil Boyd-Rochfort as Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, investing him in Ascot. Another thrill came in the fall when Aureole took the Cumberland Lodge S. in Ascot.
The first pony of Hypericum’s half-sister Donatello, Angelola (who won the Lingfield Oaks, Yorkshire Oaks and Newmarket Oaks Challenge in 1948 for King George VI and finished second on the Oaks team) , Aureole did even better at the age of 4. In the summer of 1954, he won three races: at Epsom in the Crowning Cup, at Royal Ascot in Hardwicke S. and at Ascot in a race named after the Queen’s parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. At Royal Ascot he was part of the double for The Queen on the last day of the meeting, with the perfectly cross-bred Landau (45 Derby winner Dante from Sun Chariot) taking the Rous Memorial S. under the command of Gordon Richards. Later in the summer, Landau, who was hired from National Stud as his dam, won the Sussex S. at Goodwood.
At the end of that year, The Queen became the owner of the championship for the first time, with a total of £40,993 (3/4 of which went to Aureole) from her 19 wins. Second place, with around £1,000 less, goes to Sterling Clark, whose 25 wins include a Derby win over Never Say Die, the first Kentucky hybrid to win the grand slam Best. The Queen thus emulated the achievement of her great-grandfather King Edward VII (while the Prince of Wales) was the champion owner in 1900 and that of her father King George VI, who had been the owner. won the championship in 1942.
Tomorrow: Second championship and first winner of the Purebred Classic line.
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