Queen Elizabeth II, whose funeral takes place on Monday, was a lifelong lover of horse racing. Legendary racing broadcaster Derek Thompson gives us an insight of just how important Her Majesty’s presence around the circuit was to other followers of the sport.
“The Queen always loved her horses through her father and of course the Queen Mother, and we have the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham. The whole royal family loved it, and The Queen had her first Royal Ascot winner back in 1953 with Choir Boy in the year of her coronation, and she almost did it again in the Derby that year but Gordon Richards spoiled the party with Pinzer. But she had winners all over, she won four of the five classics, and the only one she never won was the Derby. But I think the greatest and most exciting win was the 2013 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot when Estimate won.
“The Royal Procession at Royal Ascot is one of the highlights of the calendar, to see that carriage coming down, you can't buy that. It doesn't matter how big a punter you are, how big a sponsor you are, you get up there. You only know that it’s truly Royal Ascot when the royal arrival happens and they come down in the horse and carriage.
“When you met her she was just normal. That is the amazing thing, that’s the beauty of the royal family. We look up to them and yet they’re normal people, they’re so lovely. They could act like Kings and Queens, but they just talked to us. I remember the Queen Mother coming into the press room at Cheltenham one day and I was rushing through trying to catch up with an interview, and she said ‘Make way for Mr. Thompson!’ But that was the Queen Mother there.
“I was once at Sandringham in Norfolk at the royal estate and there was a sort of drinks party with about 50 of us there. Her Majesty was there and she was going around everyone and she had a glass of water in her hand, as she always did, and she came over to me and said to me: ‘I know you’. I said to her: ‘I know you too!’ We had a good chat about the horses and she said: ‘I love watching you on the racing because you do so well’.
“I lived in Newmarket for many years and she used to come and watch the horses on the gallops. That was obviously very secret, nobody would know, but at 7:00 in the morning the Queen would turn up and watch the horses. She was just such a lovely, lovely person, you know. For our royal family to have that love of equine, of horses, it was so lovely. I’ll never ever forget that.”
