Tag: Her Majesty The Queen

‘For All Racing Lovers She Was Our Queen Too’

On a dreich Scottish Thursday the unthinkable but inevitable finally happened and Britain's second Elizabethan era came to a peaceful end in a Highland idyll.

For anyone in Britain born after 1952, all we have ever known is the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. There will be plenty of people who, for understandable reasons, do not approve of the monarchy. And it has not been uncommon to hear people express an anti-monarchist view while adding, “But I like the Queen”.

How the passing of such a steadfast presence will affect Britain, at a time of political upheaval, is unknowable. What is certain is that British horseracing, not entirely devoid of its own political problems, has lost its most recognisable and beloved figurehead, one whose mere presence at the races gave the sport a priceless allure.

It was a two-way street, however, for as much as the Queen gave to racing, she quite clearly reaped her own deep enjoyment from being a participant: a breeder, an owner, and most of all an enthusiast.

From Her Majesty's first winner, Monaveen, at Fontwell Park in October 1949 before she became Queen, to her final winner on Tuesday at Goodwood, it is easy to imagine that horseracing, and breeding thoroughbreds for that pursuit, gave her much joyful respite from the constitutional duties she took so seriously.

The last horse to carry her distinctive red and purple silks to glory during her lifetime was the juvenile Love Affairs (GB)–not a graduate of the Royal Studs but a gift, like Carlton House and Estimate (Ire), from a fellow major owner-breeder. And Love Affairs could scarcely have a more apposite name when it comes to reflecting on Her Majesty's enduring passion for the turf.

Her death has plunged Britain into a period of national mourning, with racing suspended for Friday and Saturday, and almost certainly on the day of her state funeral, which looks likely to be Monday, Sept. 19. Within the relatively small world that is racing, there is an overwhelming feeling that we have lost one of our own, united as we all are in an obsession for discovering which horse can run faster than the others.

To see footage of the Queen casting a knowledgeable eye over her homebreds at the Royal Studs, or on holiday at Balmoral surrounded by her dogs, was to see the person behind the persona–a countrywoman at heart. But she lived an extraordinary life–of privilege, yes, but also one in which she bore the unimaginable burden of duty and restraint. Her existence spanned almost a century, through one World War, while her reign incorporated 15 British prime ministers born 101 years apart–her first being her fellow horse-lover and racing aficionado Sir Winston Churchill and the last, appointed just two days before she died in the Queen's final act of constitutional significance, Liz Truss.

While for many of us racing is a job as well as a passion, one sensed that for the Queen it was the greatest release–from greeting dignitaries, cutting ribbons, blessing ships, and reading endless parliamentary papers. And isn't that something we should all remember: that racing is supposed to be fun.

Lord Huntingdon, the uncle of current royal trainer Andrew Balding, trained for the Queen for 20 years, their winners together including the G2 Ribblesdale and G2 Geoffrey Freer S. winner Phantom Gold (GB) (Machiavellian), who is now the granddam of one of the Queen's most recent Pattern-race winners Reach For The Moon (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}).

He said, “One of the best things about training for her was that she understood that if things didn't go quite to plan, the trainer would be just as disappointed as she was. She took those disappointments with great equanimity.

“Usually it would be Henry [Lord Carnarvon, the Queen's former racing manager] who would speak to her after races but if something had run particularly badly he would sometimes suggest that I telephone her. The Queen would realise what was going on and would say, 'I imagine things didn't go well then'.”

He added, “It was always such a pleasure to go to see the yearlings with her at Polhampton and I have enjoyed seeing the continuation of her families, particularly Phantom Gold's. When she came to the stables she would take just as much interest in other people's horses as her own, and really it was just a pleasure to train for someone with such a depth of knowledge for horses generally, and with such a good sense of humour.”

Six years ago in Newmarket a statue was unveiled, between the Rowley Mile racecourse and the High Street, to mark the Queen's 90th birthday. It depicts her standing alongside a mare and foal and is an appropriate marker in a town which is not just a training centre but also home to a number of major stud farms as well as the headquarters of the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association, of which the Queen was patron since 1953.

There, on Friday, a constant stream of mourners appeared to place flowers at the foot of the bronze, heads bowed for a while in quiet reflection, or chatting to strangers united in common grief. The local primary school left a touching tribute which read in part, “We remember with great fondness the connection the Queen had with Newmarket and her love of horses.”

And indeed, her trainers in the town–Sir Michael Stoute, William Haggas, John and Thady Gosden, and Michael Bell–will miss her annual spring visit to see her horses exercising on the Heath. Beyond Newmarket, the Queen's patronage of British stables ran to Roger and Harry Charlton, Andrew Balding, Richard Hannon, Richard Hughes, Nicky Henderson, Charlie Longsdon, and her newest recruit, Clive Cox, who trained her final winner on Tuesday.

But the outpouring of tributes at the news of the Queen's death came from way beyond these shores. Claiborne Farm posted photographs on social media showing the Queen inspecting Round Table and Mr. Prospector on a visit to Kentucky–those two great names alone being indicative of the longevity of her interest. In the racing world, Olivier Delloye, CEO of France Galop, perhaps summed it up best when saying, “For all racing lovers she was our Queen too.”

Indeed she was. The Queen loved racing, and racing loved the Queen.

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Queen Elizabeth II Dies

Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom and Head of the Commonwealth, as well as being one of the world's most enthusiastic and knowledgeable racehorse owner-breeders, died on Thursday at Balmoral. She was 96 years old. 

The reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was not merely the longest in British history, but was also one of the most successful. Leading by example, she steered her country through the momentous changes of the past seven decades. She ascended the throne as the sun was setting on the British Empire and it was thanks to the universal affection and respect which she came to command that the Commonwealth, with all the international goodwill which it has generated and continues to generate, was able to be established. Society is now almost unrecognisable from the world of the 1950s but the monarchy remains; with a lesser figure on the throne during the past 70 turbulent years, it is far from certain that that would be the case. All the while, Queen Elizabeth II's unshakable dedication to her country and to her duty went hand in hand with her love of racing, and both were hugely enriched by her commitment.

The tradition of the British monarch racing horses goes back centuries. In the 17th century the Stuart kings made Newmarket the centre of the sport in Great Britain, which made it the centre of the racing world, a position which it holds to this day. Ascot racecourse owes its existence to the enthusiasm of its founder Queen Anne. While Queen Victoria, who reigned from 1837 to 1901, had no interest in the sport, her eldest son, the future King Edward VII, more than made up for that, owning two Derby winners while still Prince of Wales and becoming the perfect sporting king after his accession to the throne. The royal studs and royal string flourished under his stewardship, as they did under Queen Elizabeth II's grandfather King George V and her father King George VI.

King George VI owned his final Classic winner when his home-bred Hyperion filly Hypericum (GB) won the 1,000 Guineas in 1946. Following her father's death on February 6, 1952, Queen Elizabeth II, at the age of just 26, was crowned on June 2, 1953 and Coronation Week perfectly summed up the twin threads of kingdom and sport which ran through her life. Four days after the Coronation, her Hyperion colt Aureole (GB), bred by her father, finished second in the Derby behind Pinza (GB) (Chanteur {Fr}), the latter ridden by Gordon Richards, the doyen of champion jockeys who had received a knighthood in the Coronation honours. Later in the month Queen Elizabeth II owned the first of her many Royal Ascot winners when Choirboy (GB) (Hyperion {GB}) won the Royal Hunt Cup, and during the week she invested the long-standing royal trainer Captain Cecil Boyd-Rochfort as a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.

Aureole, who had won the Acomb Stakes at York as a two-year-old, improved further from three to four and in 1954 he proved himself a champion with three big wins culminating in his triumph in the race named in honour of Queen Elizabeth II's parents, the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot. He had previously won the Coronation Cup at Epsom and the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot, and his success proved instrumental in Her Majesty ending the season as champion owner for the first time, an achievement which she repeated three years later.

Ever since the glory days of Aureole (who later became a very successful stallion at Wolferton Stud, being crowned Champion Sire of Great Britain and Ireland in both 1960 and '61) the Queen's staunch, successful and whole-hearted patronage has ensured that racing's tag of the Sport of Kings has remained a perfect byline. She owned her first Classic winner when the Noel Murless-trained Carozza (GB) (Dante {GB}), a filly whom she leased from the National Stud, won the Oaks under a 21-year-old Lester Piggott in 1957.  Further Classic glory followed when Pall Mall (GB) (Palestine {GB}) won the 2,000 Guineas in 1958, fittingly ridden by Doug Smith who had guided Hypericum to glory up the Rowley Mile in the same royal livery 12 years previously.

The golden days continued to come. Highclere (GB) (Queen's Hussar {GB}), trained by Major Dick Hern and ridden by Joe Mercer, emulated her grand-dam Hypericum by winning the 1,000 Guineas in 1974 before completing a glorious European Classic double by galloping to victory in the Prix de Diane at Chantilly, hours after Her Majesty and her entourage had been driven up the course before racing in a French welcome fit for a queen. Three years later Hern provided a perfectly timed triumph when Dunfermline (GB) (Royal Palace {GB}) won the Oaks at Epsom on the day that the nation celebrated Her Majesty's Silver Jubilee. Later that season Dunfermline doubled her Classic haul when outstaying Alleged (Hoist The Flag) in the St Leger, a performance whose merit was confirmed when Alleged won the next two runnings of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Hopes were high for a similarly special celebration 34 years later when Carlton House (Street Cry {Ire}), who had been given to Her Majesty as a yearling by Sheikh Mohammed, went off favourite for the Derby as the celebrations for the Queen's 85th birthday celebrations loomed.  Unfortunately he could only finish a close third. An even greater gift turned out to have been Estimate (Ire) (Monsun {Ger}), a present from HH Aga Khan IV. Her victory in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in 2013 made Queen Elizabeth II the first monarch to own the winner of the greatest race of the greatest race-meeting, a result which gave pleasure to millions.

Royal Ascot was always a fixture in the Queen's calendar, a meeting which she adored. The pleasure which she savoured there each year was exceeded only by the esteem which the sport gained from her presence and participation.  That Gold Cup triumph must have given her boundless joy, but two other runnings of the great race, each won by one of her closest racing friends, must have given her almost equal pleasure. In 1974 the Duke of Norfolk, for many years Her Majesty's Representative at Ascot, won it with his John Dunlop-trained home-bred Ragstone (GB) (Ragusa {Ire}); nine years later the prize went to the Dick Hern-trained Little Wolf (GB) (Grundy {GB}), bred and raced by her long-time racing manager Lord Porchester (later the 7th Earl of Carnarvon).

One particular Royal Ascot memory shines out brightly. The unbeaten Australian champion sprinter Black Caviar (Aus) (Bel Espirt {Aus}) overcame a mountain of obstacles to record a famous victory in the G1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes in 2012. After the race, Her Majesty, whose respect and admiration for a great horse remained as pure as it had been when she was a young girl with her grandfather King George V entrancing her with his account of the victory of his home-bred filly Scuttle (GB) in the 1,000 Guineas, made sure that she reached the unsaddling enclosure in time to ask Black Caviar's connections for permission to make the acquaintance of their wonderful mare. Royal Ascot may be about pageantry, style and social cachet but, as Queen Elizabeth II reminded us on that unforgettable day, it is, always has been, and always will be primarily about great horses. And few have ever revered great horses over as extended a period as Her Majesty did.

Queen Elizabeth II's racing life and her royal duties fitted together perfectly.  Her love of and deep understanding of the sport tied in particularly well with her royal duties overseas, when days at the races were included where possible in official tours. Aside from the pleasure which such trips gave to Her Majesty, the boundary-crossing passion for the sport did much to foster friendly relations between the Queen and her hosts. Race-clubs worldwide were delighted to find a shared love of the sport with the British monarch, invariably strengthening ties between the nations.

The Queen's Plate (inaugurated in 1860 at the now-defunct Carleton racecourse in Toronto by permission of Queen Victoria) has retained its place as Canada's premier Classic and one of the world's great races, despite the anachronism of being restricted to Canadian-bred horses. Every Queen's Plate day at Woodbine is special, but none more so than when Queen Elizabeth II was the guest of honour, as she was in 1959 for the 100th running of the great race. That year's winner was the Windfields Farm home-bred New Providence (Bull Page) who went on to enjoy a very good stud career. In retrospect, Her Majesty must have wished she had been there five years later when another Windfields home-bred won the race, following up his Kentucky Derby victory: Northern Dancer (Nearctic). Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh attended three subsequent Queen's Plates, in 1973, 1997 and 2010.

Queen Elizabeth II's father King George VI had been the first reigning British monarch to attend the Queen's Plate when he and Her Majesty's mother Queen Elizabeth had seen Archworth (Worthmore) win in 1939, and Queen Elizabeth, as the Queen Mother, attended the race-day a further six times.  She struck particularly lucky as regards the quality of the winner in 1962 when the home-bred Windfields filly Flaming Page (Bull Page) won the great race.  Flaming Page subsequently secured everlasting fame thanks to her mating in 1966 with Northern Dancer, a union which, of course, produced Nijinsky.

For obvious reasons, the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club dropped the 'Royal' from its name when the UK's lease on the territory expired in 1997, but the HKJC has continued to run the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (currently sponsored by Audemars Piguet) every April. This race was first run at Happy Valley in 1975 when the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh went to the races on their first visit to Hong Kong. It was subsequently relocated to Sha Tin after that showpiece racecourse's creation on land reclaimed from the sea.

Major races paying tribute to Queen Elizabeth II have flourished around the globe. Keeneland inaugurated the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (which now carries Grade 1 status) when Her Majesty visited in 1984. Nine years later the Queen paid what proved to have been her only state visit to Japan, which triggered the subsequent inauguration of the Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup at Kyoto, another race which now carries Grade 1 status.  In France, a royal visit in 1972 had prompted the running of La Coupe de Sa Majeste la Reine Elizabeth at Longchamp, the race subsequently being transferred to Chantilly in honour of Highclere's victory there and renamed the G2 Prix Sandringham. In Australia, the G3 Queen Elizabeth Stakes is a highlight of the final day of the VRC Carnival at Flemington every spring in Victoria; while the crown jewel of the Championships at Royal Randwick every autumn in New South Wales is the G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes. It was fitting that Carlton House was able to carry the royal silks honourably in the race in 2014 after his transferral from Sir Michael Stoute's string in Newmarket to Gai Waterhouse's stable in Sydney.

Arguably the most special royal race took place as a one-off on a late-autumn day in the Australian capital Canberra (which in the normal course of events never stages top-class racing) to celebrate Australia's bicentenary in 1988, the Queen Elizabeth Stakes. It worked out wonderfully well when this special race turned into a stirring duel between two terrific horses, the champion older horse Bonecrusher (NZ) (Pag-Asa {Aus}) and the champion three-year-old Beau Zam (NZ) (Zamazaan {Fr}) in a race which also featured the recent G1 VRC Australian Cup hero Dandy Andy (NZ) (Three Legs {GB}). Beau Zam came off best at the end of an epic horse-race, a result which must have given Her Majesty particular pleasure as her daughter Princess Anne had ridden him at trackwork at Randwick one morning a few weeks previously, shortly before his victory in the AJC Derby.

Les Carlyon summed up the spirit of the occasion perfectly in his report in the Age newspaper: “The Queen Elizabeth, as good a race as you will see, was a rebuff to those who think the Crown has trained off, that the royalty bit, rather like straight-backed jockeys, is out of time and place. Consider what the royal presence did yesterday. Here we were in Canberra, which is to high-class racing what Alice Springs is to international sculling. And on Sunday, too.  Here were three of the best horses in the land. Collectively, they had won $4 million. They were going around for just $65,000 to the winner. What brought them? The Queen. Simple as that.”

Beau Zam's trainer Bart Cummings subsequently gave a typically droll account of his presentation to Her Majesty in the winner's enclosure: “She's a very gracious lady. She obviously takes racing very seriously. She knows her pedigrees. She said it was a most exciting race. She said he is a lovely-looking colt. Can't say any more. She gave me a wink.”

No royal tour, though, has seen the Queen's love of the horse and the sport complementing her official duties more perfectly than was the case during her ground-breaking state visit to Ireland in May 2011.  This was the first visit by the British monarch to what is now the Republic of Ireland for 100 years, the last previous one having been made by her grandfather King George V in 1911.  That, of course, was when Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom, which changed after 700 years of (often brutal) British occupation when the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty on December,f 1921 brought the Irish War of Independence to an end.  For most of the remainder of the 20th century, it seemed inconceivable that a British monarch would be rash enough to visit the Republic of Ireland in the foreseeable future.  Time, though, is a great healer, but what proved the crucial factor in this particular healing process was the worldwide respect which the irreproachable conduct of Queen Elizabeth II had fostered over the previous decades.  Furthermore, what particularly helped to pave the way for her historic visit was her legendary love of the horse and of the turf, a passion which could only endear her to the hearts of that particular nation.

Even people with no misgivings about the wisdom of a British monarch visiting Ireland could not have predicted what a tremendous success the tour would prove to be. The tone was set on the first day when she and the Irish President Mary McAleese laid wreaths together in the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin and the Queen bowed to honour those who had died for Irish independence. On the second day she went even further to lay the ghosts of the past to rest and to make atonement for a particularly black chapter in British history when she visited Croke Park, where on 'Bloody Sunday', November 21, 1920, British machine guns had been fired on players and spectators at a Gaelic football match, killing 14 Irish civilians, including two children, and wounding at least 60 more. Although some officials of the Gaelic Athletic Association declined to attend Her Majesty's visit to Croke Park, she was greeted there by the President of the GAA Christy Cooney with the words, “Your Majesty, on behalf of the members of the Gaelic Athletic Association throughout Ireland and across the world, I am delighted to welcome you to our headquarters.”  

The following day Her Majesty visited the Irish National Stud, where she was shown around by the Chief Executive John Osborne, and Gilltown Stud, where she had lunch as the guest of HH Aga Khan IV and his family. On the fourth and final day she headed south-west to Cork via the Rock of Cashel, where the Sinn Fein Mayor of Cashel, Michael Browne, welcomed her and shook her hand, a particularly notable event as Sinn Fein had refused to take part in the official reception for her in Dublin. One consequence of this welcome was that the following month it was announced that Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland, would do the same on her next visit to the province. From Cashel she visited Coolmore Stud, where John Magnier welcomed her and introduced her to Galileo (Ire), much to her evident delight.

In four days, Queen Elizabeth II, as both Head of State and horse-lover, did more to nurture Anglo-Irish friendship than could previously ever have been imagined possible. That summed up her reign perfectly. The United Kingdom has been very fortunate to have had such a special person as its monarch for 70 years, and racing has been very fortunate to have enjoyed the patronage of the greatest supporter it has ever known.

Queen Elizabeth II, born in London, England, April 21, 1926; died at Balmoral, Scotland, September 8, 2022

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Coronation Cup a Fitting Part of Royal Jubilee

While Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee celebrations at Epsom understandably focus on the Derby, we should remember that that great race, in which she owned the runner-up Aureole (GB) just days after her Coronation in 1953, is not the only big race at the meeting which has close links to Britain's Royal Family.  Arguably even stronger are the ties which bind Epsom's big weight-for-age race, the G1 Coronation Cup, to the monarchy.

This prestigious contest is run over the Derby course for 4-year-olds and upwards and serves as the natural target for the previous year's Derby winner. Initially known as the Epsom Gold Cup, it was re-named the Coronation Cup in 1902 to mark the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II's great-grandfather King Edward VII. It thus celebrates the life-long love of racing of King Edward VII, who was an enthusiastic and very successful owner as both Prince of Wales and monarch. His passion was also honoured (posthumously) when the Ascot Derby was re-named the King Edward VII S. in 1926.

Many of Britain's monarchs have loved the Sport of Kings over the centuries, but Queen Elizabeth II has been the one whose passion for the sport has at least matched that of King Edward VII. It is fitting, therefore, that while Aureole's racing career is best remembered for his valiant effort to provide a royal victory in what is often popularly referred to as the Coronation Derby, his best win came 52 weeks later when he carried the royal colours to victory in the Coronation Cup, thus helping his sire Hyperion (GB) to his sixth and final sires' championship.

Aureole went on to enjoy a splendid stud career, most notably topping the sires' table in both 1960 and '61, in which seasons his best winners were Derby hero St Paddy (GB) and St Leger winner Aurelius (GB), respectively. He clearly ranks as one of the most distinguished horses to win the Coronation Cup during its 120-year history, but such is the class of the race's roll of honour that he certainly can't be regarded as the greatest.

The winners of the Epsom Gold Cup had included the mighty St Simon (GB), arguably the greatest horse to race during the 19th century. It didn't take long for the Coronation Cup to become established as a race won by horses of the highest order.

The first Coronation Cup to be won by a horse whom we can describe as a great was the third one, in 1904. The winner that year was Zinfandel (GB) who had been ruled out of the Classics in 1903 when the death of his owner Colonel McCalmont had rendered his engagements void. He was left to prove his class elsewhere, which he did repeatedly at Ascot, where he won the Gold Cup, the Gold Vase and the Alexandra Plate (now Queen Alexandra S.). His finest hour, though, came at Epsom where he led home a trifecta of superstars in the 1904 Coronation Cup, the minor placings being filled by Sceptre (GB) and Rock Sand (GB), winners between them of seven British Classics.

An even greater horse won the next two Coronation Cups because in both 1905 and '06 the prize was taken by Pretty Polly (Ire). Winner of the Fillies' Triple Crown in 1904, Pretty Polly ultimately established a record of 22 wins and two second places from 24 starts and is considered by many to have been both the greatest filly of the 20th century and the most influential broodmare too. Her descendants have included Brigadier Gerard (GB) and the Derby winners St Paddy (GB), Psidium (Ire) and Workforce (GB) as well as the influential sires Donatello II (Ity), Nearctic (Can), Vienna (GB), Northern Taste (Can) and Cape Cross (Ire), the latter, of course, responsible for the superb Derby winners Sea The Stars (Ire) and Golden Horn (GB).

Great winners of the Coronation Cup kept coming. Pretty Polly's two wins were followed by another double, the admirable The White Knight (Ire) scoring in both 1907 and '08.  In each year he went to Ascot after Epsom and won the Gold Cup there. An even more popular horse took the Coronation Cup in 1909 when the prize went to the evergreen 8-year-old Dean Swift (GB). Few top-class horses have been less wearied by age than Dean Swift, who ran in Epsom's City and Suburban H. eight years running (winning it twice and registering four minor placings) and ultimately brought the house down at Goodwood in 1911 by winning the Chesterfield Cup at the age of 10.

America's champion 2-year-old of 1908, Sir Martin (Ogden {GB}) was sent to England in 1909 to try to win the Derby. This principal aim was not achieved as in a rough race he and Bayardo, who had been Britain's champion juvenile, were the principal sufferers in a melee at Tattenham Corner. Bayardo (GB) forfeited merely his chance, while Sir Martin lost his rider.  Both horses subsequently put this debacle behind them, Bayardo landing a string of great wins highlighted by his victory in the 1910 Gold Cup at Ascot and Sir Martin winning the 1910 Coronation Cup.

The race was won in 1911 by Bayardo's lesser half-brother Lemburg (GB) who thus became the first horse to augment victory in the Derby by taking the following year's Coronation Cup. At least equally distinguished was the 1913 winner Prince Palatine (GB) whose other victories included the 1911 St Leger as well as two Ascot Gold Cups, an Eclipse S., a Jockey Club S. and a Doncaster Cup. Thanks largely to his grandson Princequillo (GB) (Rose Prince {GB}), Prince Palatine ultimately went on to feature in the pedigrees of some of the greatest horses of the 20th century.

The most notable horses to win the Coronation Cup during the First World War were the 1914 St Leger winner Black Jester (GB) and the 1915 Derby winner Pommern (GB). The tradition of Classic winners taking the race as 4-year-olds continued through the inter-war years, most notably with horses of the calibre of Solario (GB), Coronach (GB) and Windsor Lad (GB). The luckless Dastur (Ire), who finished second in all three legs of the Triple Crown in 1932 as well as winning the King Edward VII S., Irish Derby and Sussex S., was another.

The most remarkable Classic hero of that period to win the Coronation Cup as a 4-year-old was Reigh Count (Sunreigh {GB}), the 1928 Kentucky Derby winner who was sent to England in 1929 to try to prove himself the best horse in the world. He went some way towards doing that by winning the Coronation Cup before finishing second in the Gold Cup at Ascot, after which his owner Fannie Hertz reportedly turned down an unprecedented offer of $1,000,000. Mrs. Hertz had reason to be thankful for her decision when, standing him at Stoner Creek Stud near Paris, Kentucky, he sired her homebred colt Count Fleet, winner of the US Triple Crown in 1943 before, based at Stoner Creek, becoming North America's Champion Sire of 1951 and Champion Broodmare Sire of 1963.

French horses dominated many of Britain's biggest races in the post-war years, with the Coronation Cup's roll of honour illustrating this perfectly. In the seven years 1946 to 1952 inclusive, French trainers supplied six of the winners, headed by the 1951 hero Tantieme (Fr) who, trained by Francois Mathet, had won the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe eight months previously and would go on to take France's greatest race for a second time that autumn. The only non-French winner in this period was Beau Sabreur (Ire) who won the race as a 4-year-old in 1949. Trained at the Curragh by Cecil Brabazon, he had won the Irish 2000 Guineas and Irish St Leger the previous year but had been denied the chance to land his country's Triple Crown when he had had to miss the Irish Derby.

An even better Irish-trained horse took the Coronation Cup nine years later when Ballymoss (GB) won the race as part of a stellar campaign in which he consolidated the reputation which Vincent O'Brien was starting to earn as Europe's pre-eminent big-race specialist. Runner-up in the Derby in 1957 before winning the St Leger, Ballymoss dominated Europe's weight-for-age ranks in 1958 by reeling off a sparkling four-timer consisting of the Coronation Cup, Eclipse S., King George VI & Queen Elizabeth S. and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Lester Piggott subsequently became O'Brien's most frequent partner in glory but Scobie Breasley was Ballymoss's jockey that year. Piggott, though, rode the winners of the next three Coronation Cups. In 1959 he guided the Harry Wragg-trained Nagami to victory before scoring in 1960 and '61 on a mare who takes her place alongside Pretty Polly in the highest tier of the pantheon: the Noel Murless-trained Petite Etoile (GB). The sublimely-talented great-great-granddaughter of 'The Flying Filly' Mumtaz Mahal (GB) carried Prince Aly Khan's silks to victory in 1961 but raced for his father HH Aga Khan III 12 months later, subsequent to the tragedy of the Prince's fatal car crash. It was hard for Petite Etoile to become a notable influence in pedigrees as she only had one daughter, the Habitat filly Zahra (Ire), but she ranks as the fifth dam of HH Aga Khan IV's great filly Zarkava (Ire).

Petite Etoile, like Pretty Polly before her, was a hard act to follow, but the Coronation Cup kept producing winners worthy of such great race. In fact, a racemare of similar charisma won the race later that decade. The 11th Duke of Devonshire's hugely popular Park Top (GB) was actually unlucky not to become the race's fourth dual winner, scoring easily in 1969 before an over-confident ride by Lester Piggott saw her lose out to the Noel Murless-trained Caliban (GB) the following year.

The stallion boom which began to build momentum in the late 1970s has been a significant factor in weakening the ranks of Europe's high-class older horses. However, such is the Coronation Cup's status that its roll of honour remains rock-solid. Outstanding horses were winning it through the '60s and '70s, and outstanding horses are still winning it in the 21st century. It was and still is the obvious target for the previous year's Classic stars.

The Derby winners Relko (Fr), Charlottown (GB), Royal Palace (GB), Mill Reef and Roberto all won the Coronation Cup. So did the Oaks winners Lupe (GB) and Time Charter (Ire), and the St Leger winners Bustino (GB), Crow (Fr), Silver Patriarch (GB), Mutafaweq and Scorpion (Ire). Others in the modern era to have won European Classics before taking the Coronation Cup have included Exceller, Triptych (the iron mare who won it in both 1987 and '88), In The Groove (GB), Soldier Of Fortune (Ire) and Fame And Glory (Ire).

A more recent development has been a Coronation Cup/ Breeders' Cup Turf double. This has been completed by In The Wings (GB), Daylami (Ire), Shirocco (Ger), St Nicholas Abbey (Ire), and Highland Reel (Ire); while Swain (Ire) and Singspiel (Ire) were arguably unlucky not to do so.

Warrsan (Ire) became the fifth horse to win the Coronation Cup twice when scoring in 2003 and '04 but paradoxically doesn't truly rank as one of the greats to have taken the race.  The horse who won it the next year does, though. Yeats (Ire) had been favourite for the Derby in 2004 before going amiss but bounced back to take the Coronation Cup in 2005. He then won the Gold Cup at Ascot in each of the next four seasons.

The race's only triple winner, the ill-fated St Nicholas Abbey (Ire) who won it in 2011, '12 and '13, definitely deserves his place in any list of outstanding racehorses, as do the even more recent winners Cirrus Des Aigles (Fr), Postponed (Ire), Highland Reel, and the 2020 Cartier Horse of the Year Ghaiyyath (Ire) who won the race at Newmarket during that COVID-affected season, breaking the track record and leading home the previous year's Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) and the redoubtable Stradivarius (Ire). Last year's Cazoo Derby winner Adayar (Ire) remains in training in 2022 and the Coronation Cup, sponsored this year by Dahlbury, was the automatic choice for his resumption, although sadly a setback means that he won't be in the field this week.

Even in Adayar's absence, this year's Coronation Cup will still be a notable race whose winner will have earned his place in history. The winning jockey too will rank alongside some of the best we have ever seen, although one of them is likely to reign supreme for all time.  Lester Piggott, the true master of Epsom, holds a record for Derby wins (nine) which may well stand forever. His record total of Coronation Cup winners is the same, starting when, aged 17, he won on the quirky 5-year-old Zucchero (Ire) in 1953 and ending 30 years later when he guided Be My Native, trained by his brother-in-law Robert Armstrong, to victory.

With a history thus stuffed with many of racing's most legendary names, equine and human, the Coronation Cup is a perfect part of the jubilee celebrations of a great racing monarch.

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Tour of Royal Yards to Celebrate Platinum Jubilee

Royal trainers William Haggas, Michael Bell and John and Thady Gosden will open the doors of their stables for a series of Royal Yard Tours this summer to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Discover Newmarket will host the tours, which offer visitors a behind-the-scenes look at Somerville Lodge, Fitzroy House, and Clarehaven, where Her Majesty has horses in training. The royal trainers will also take guests to the Gallops– the training grounds around Newmarket. The full-day tour includes a visit to the National Stud, where a stallion parade will be conducted by the former manager of The Royal Studs in addition to a visit to the National Horseracing Museum, which The Queen opened in 2016 on the original site of Charles II's Palace and Stables.

Discover Newmarket is also providing the Newmarket's Racing Royalty Tour, which explores the town's connections with the monarchy for over 350 years, since Charles II's horse won the very first recorded horse race in history. A guided tour of Palace House is also included.

Royal Yard Tours cost £165 per person and are available May 31 (Somerville Lodge), July 1 (Fitzroy House), and a date to be announced (Clarehaven).

The Newmarket Racing Royalty Tour is offered at £40 per person and is available May 7, June 20, Sept. 3 and Oct. 14, or as a private tour for a £50 supplement.

For more information, visit https://discovernewmarket.co.uk.

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