Tag: Lord Huntingdon

New Bay’s Saffron Beach Wins The Duke of Cambridge

Wednesday's G2 Duke of Cambridge S. offered another episode of stalls drama that seems to have dogged the first two days of Royal Ascot, but by the time Saffron Beach (Ire) (New Bay {GB}) had come home alone there was a sense that Sibila Spain (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) would have needed wings had she not been removed from the contest after going down in the gates. Making her European return under a five-pound penalty due to her winning exploits in Newmarket's G1 Sun Chariot S. in October, the Jane Chapple-Hyam-trained 5-2 joint-favourite gifted William Buick an easy task from the time the field left behind the withdrawn Sibila Spain. Helped by the target of Novemba (Ger) (Gleneagles {Ire}) dead ahead, the chestnut who was last seen finishing fourth in the G1 Dubai Turf S. at Meydan Mar. 26 slid by passing the three-furlong marker and was soon beyond recall. At the line, she rated as the second widest-margin winner so far at the meeting with a 3 1/2-length verdict over the outsider Thunder Beauty (Ire) (Night of Thunder {Ire}), with Primo Bacio (Ire) (Awtaad {Ire}) a further head away in third. “We were going slow, but she got into a nice rhythm. I wanted to get there in good time and not turn it into a two-furlong sprint, but she won very well and it was straightforward for her,” Buick said.

Saffron Beach had won the G3 Oh So Sharp S. at Newmarket in October 2020 before finishing second to Sacred (GB) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}) in the seven-furlong G3 Nell Gwyn S. and to Mother Earth (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) in the 1000 Guineas last Spring. Getting it together in the G3 Atalanta S. at Sandown last August and the Sun Chariot, she had failed to fire at Meydan but her trainer had worked on having her at fever-pitch for this. “It is hard going to Dubai off a winter break,” Chapple-Hyam explained. “She was up against hardened colts and geldings and it showed in the finish. We didn't have a prep race, whereas here we went to Chelmsford and the July Course to get the work into her. I presume it will be the [G1] Prix Rothschild [at Deauville] on August 2, the Sun Chariot at Newmarket, and then the Breeders' Cup.”

Jason Kelly, assistant to David O'Meara, said of the runner-up who outran her 40-1 odds. “Thunder Beauty has run a great race. We'll probably drop back to seven furlongs. There is the [G3] Oak Tree Stakes at Goodwood and that will be high on the agenda. She is a high-class filly and is versatile ground-wise. She was big odds and we thought Saffron Beach would be handy so, instead of getting into a duel early, we thought we'd take our time and challenge late. She is probably slightly better over seven furlongs, so we wanted to make sure she got home. It was a super run. My uncle David Kelly owns her and we are creeping up. She was listed-placed last year, then group three-placed and now we are group two-placed.”

Primo Bacio was regaining some form after a lean spell and trainer Ed Walker said, “Finally she has got her ground! This race was a bit of an afterthought really, so we are hoping there will be improvement to come. I did not think we'd get here, but she worked really well and, due to a lack of alternative options, we thought let's have a go. On that basis, you have to be super happy with that. I think she would have been a clear second if she was A1. I think we will go to the [G1] Falmouth, as she ran so well in it last year.”

Saffron Beach, who cost a mere 55,000gns at the 2018 Tattersalls December Foal Sale, is out of Falling Petals (Ire) (Raven's Pass) who was sold by Godolphin to the China Horse Club for €235,000 at the 2016 Goffs November Mares Sale. She is a half-sister to the G1 Middle Park S. third Huntdown (Elusive Quality), whose full-sister Continua produced the G3 World Trophy S. and G3 Molecomb S.-winning sire Cotai Glory (GB) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}). The third dam Eternal Reve (Diesis {GB}) annexed the G3 Matron S. and was runner-up in the G1 Coronation S. here and is connected to the leading sire Miswaki. Falling Petals' unraced 2-year-old filly Providenciales (Ire) (Australia {GB}) was a 450,000gns purchase by Blandford Bloodstock at the Book 1 Sale, while she also has a yearling full-brother and foal full-sister to Saffron Beach.

Wednesday, Ascot, Britain
DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE S.-G2, £175,000, Ascot, 6-15, 4yo/up, f/m, 8fT, 1:39.99, g/f.
1–SAFFRON BEACH (IRE), 133, f, 4, by New Bay (GB)
1st Dam: Falling Petals (Ire), by Raven's Pass
2nd Dam: Infinite Spirit, by Maria's Mon
3rd Dam: Eternal Reve, by Diesis (GB)
(55,000gns Wlg '18 TATFOA). O-Mrs B V Sangster, J Wigan & O Sangster; B-China Horse Club International Ltd (IRE); T-Jane Chapple-Hyam; J-William Buick. £103,600. Lifetime Record: G1SW-Eng, 10-5-2-0, $793,851. Werk Nick Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Thunder Beauty (Ire), 128, f, 4, Night of Thunder (Ire)–Quiania (Ire), by Dansili (GB). (€42,000 Ylg '19 TIRSEP; £175,000 RNA 4yo '22 GOFLON). O-D K Kelly; B-Kildaragh Stud & Michael Downey (IRE); T-David O'Meara. £39,183.
3–Primo Bacio (Ire), 128, f, 4, Awtaad (Ire)–Suvenna (Ire), by Arcano (Ire). 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. (100,000gns Ylg '19 TATOCT). O-David Ward; B-Kildaragh Stud (IRE); T-Ed Walker. £19,583.
Margins: 3HF, HD, 1. Odds: 2.50, 40.00, 14.00.
Also Ran: Novemba (Ger), Bashkirova (GB), Mother Earth (Ire), Kennella (Fr). Scratched: Sibila Spain (Ire). Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

 

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Seventy Glorious Years: Part III

In the concluding part of the series reflecting on the Queen's long attachment to thoroughbred racing and breeding, John Berry considers the prospect of a royal Derby runner in the year of the Platinum Jubilee

The most significant addition to the royal roster of trainers came in the autumn of 1966, when some of that year's yearlings were sent to the West Ilsley stable of Major Dick Hern. This was the start of a wonderful partnership, which in time saw Hern become as synonymous with the royal string as formerly Captain (later Sir) Cecil Boyd-Rochford had been. The Queen's numbers of horses in training began to drop after the decision in 1964 that the National Stud would cease to breed horses and instead become primarily a base for stallions, which meant that the source of leased horses dried up.  From a royal string of just over 30 in the mid 1960s, she had only 20 horses in training a decade later. However, Major Hern had a wonderful knack of unearthing and developing high-class horses.

Ian Balding, too, proved to be an excellent trainer for Her Majesty. Among the first good horses whom he trained for her was the Charlottesville horse Magna Carta, a son of Almeria. Magna Carta enjoyed a tremendous campaign as a 4-year-old in 1970, highlighted by his wins in the Ascot S. (thus completing a race-to-race double for Balding and his jockey Geoff Lewis, initiated by Mill Reef's victory in the Coventry S.) and the Doncaster Cup. Tragically, Magna Carta, who appealed as an obvious Gold Cup candidate, died early the next year after an accident in his stable. The Queen still had a runner in that Gold Cup, but its extreme distance proved too far for the Dick Hern-trained Charlton, another son of Charlottesville, who went into the race in good form after a win in the Henry VII S. at Sandown. In Magna Carta's absence, Example, a grand-daughter of Doutelle, became the star of the royal horses at Kingsclere in 1971, winning the Park Hill S. at Doncaster followed by a pair of big races in France, the Prix de Royallieu at Longchamp and (the following year) the Prix Jean de Chaudenay at Saint-Cloud.

The brightest star whom Hern trained for Her Majesty at West Ilsley was the aptly-named Highclere, a daughter of the Highclere Stud-based Queen's Hussar whose exploits lit up the spring and summer of 1974. Throughout the decades, the family descending from Feola, a daughter of the influential stallion Friar Marcus who had been bred at Sandringham by King George V, proved to be worth its weight in gold as it was developed under the guidance of Captain Charles Moore, as good a servant and friend to the Royal Studs as there ever could be. Feola was a high-class filly who became an outstanding broodmare, with many of her descendants playing starring roles for firstly King George VI and subsequently Queen Elizabeth II. Feola was 19 when the Queen inherited the Royal Studs in 1952 and already boasted an outstanding record as a broodmare, most notably as the dam of King George VI's 1946 1,000 Guineas heroine Hypericum. Highclere was a grand-daughter (via Highlight) of Hypericum, and she emulated her grandmother by taking the 1,000 Guineas in 1974. An even greater triumph followed six weeks later when she completed a Classic double by taking the Prix de Diane at Chantilly. The following month she finished second to Dahlia in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Diamond S. at Ascot.

Highclere was not the only top-class 3-year-old filly raced by the Queen in 1974. Ian Balding had care of Escorial, a daughter of Royal Palace whose grand-dam Spanish Court was a half-sister to Almeria. Ridden by Piggott, Escorial won the G3 Musidora S. at the York May Meeting with her head in her chest, but sadly was unable to reproduce the excellence of that effort in the Oaks, for which she started second favourite.

Highclere herself subsequently extended further the family's influence, breeding the high-class Bustino filly Height Of Fashion, successful in the Princess Of Wales's S. at Newmarket in 1982, when she broke the track record.  Unfortunately, she and her Busted half-sister Burghclere were subsequently sold to finance the Queen's purchase of West Ilsley from Sir Michael Sobell. Bought by Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum, Height Of Fashion became a mainstay of the Shadwell broodmare band, launching a stream of Group 1 winners starting with the 1989 2,000 Guineas and Derby winner Nashwan and most recently including the 2021 G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. hero Baaeed (GB).  As the grand-dam of Deep Impact (Jpn), Burghclere has turned out to have had at least as great an influence of the breed.

Three years after Highclere's splendid 3-year-old season, Major Hern prepared another dual Classic-winning filly for Her Majesty. Dunfermline (GB) (Royal Palace {GB}) provided a wonderful occasion when her triumph in the Oaks in 1977 coincided with the Queen's Silver Jubilee celebrations. An even classier performance followed in the St. Leger when she outstayed the favourite Alleged, form which was endorsed when the runner-up won the next two runnings of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Two years later the Queen looked to have a live chance in the Derby. The beautifully-bred and well-named Milford (Highclere's first foal, by Mill Reef, named after the house at Highclere in which Lord and Lady Porchester lived) was an easy winner of the Lingfield Derby Trial and went to Epsom as one of two contenders from West Ilsley, both at single-figure odds. Stable jockey Willie Carson, though, opted for the other (leaving Milford for Lester Piggott) and he was proved correct, winning by seven lengths on Sir Michael Sobell's Troy, with Milford unplaced.  Milford, incidentally, was one of two high-class 3-year-old stayers owned by the Queen in West Ilsley that year, along with Queen's Vase hero Buttress (GB) (Busted {GB}).

All good things have to come to an end, and after a hunting accident which left him in a wheelchair, Dick Hern finally had to leave West Ilsley after his Derby-winning season of 1989. Lord Huntingdon moved from Newmarket to fill the void, and while there he extended his great record at Royal Ascot, at which meeting he had first scored when Greenland Park (Ire) had won the Queen Mary S. in 1978 under the Australian jockey Harry White. Lord Huntingdon's greatest achievement was to train the winner of the Gold Cup three years running (1991 to '93). The Queen did not own the two horses involved (Indian Queen and Drum Taps) but he did prepare both Colour Sergeant (Royal Hunt Cup, 1992) and Phantom Gold (Ribblesdale S., 1995) to win at the meeting for her. Phantom Gold subsequently landed the G3 St. Simon S. and the G2 Geoffrey Freer S., both at Newbury. He also secured a notable royal victory in the USA when sending Unknown Quantity (a son of the Hyperion-line stallion Young Generation, from Example's good daughter Pas De Deux, by Nijinsky) from Newmarket to Arlington Park to win the Arlington H. in 1989. After Lord Huntingdon's retirement from the training ranks at the end of 1998, the Queen sold the property at West Ilsley to its current resident, Mick Channon.

The Queen's final Royal Ascot winner of the 20th century came from a trainer new to the royal fold, when Sir Michael Stoute sent out Blueprint (GB) to win the Duke Of Edinburgh H. Blueprint (a son of Generous from Highbrow, by Shirley Heights out of Highclere) subsequently graduated to black-type glory by taking the Fred Archer S. on Newmarket's July Course the following month and then the G2 Jockey Club S. on the Rowley Mile the next spring. His Royal Ascot triumph was particularly well timed as only that year the former Bessborough H. had been re-named in honour of the Queen's husband.  Furthermore, Stoute's presence on the royal roster is very appropriate as he is the current incumbent of Freemason Lodge, whence Sir Cecil Boyd-Rochford previously sent out so many royal winners over the decades.

As the changing face of racehorse ownership came to mean that those not racing vast strings find it hard to come up with high-class horses with any regularity, the Queen had to endure a few barren years at the start of the current century at her favourite meeting, Royal Ascot, notwithstanding that Sir Michael Stoute sent out Flight Of Fancy (GB), a daughter of Sadler's Wells from Phantom Gold, to finish second in the Oaks at Epsom in 2001. Happily, the short Ascot drought changed in thrilling style in 2008 when Free Agent (GB) (Dr Fong) won the Chesham S., much to the delight not only of his owner/breeder and her team, but also of the entire racing public. He was trained by Richard Hannon Snr, who had been added to the royal roster after gaining some great victories with fillies owned by the Earl of Carnarvon.

In recent years, the royal string has benefitted from the generosity of two of the world's most powerful owner/breeders, Sheikh Mohammed and the Aga Khan. The most notable gift from Sheikh Mohammed to the Queen was a son of Street Cry (Ire) from the 1993 Sun Chariot S. winner Talented (GB) (Bustino {GB}).  Bred by Darley and born in 2008, this colt was given the to Queen as a yearling and, curiously, she chose a name for him which she had used previously: Carlton House.

The first Carlton House, a son Pall Mall from Almeria's full-sister Alesia, had been good, winning the Fenwolf S. at Ascot in 1974 when trained by Major Hern; but the second one, trained by Sir Michael Stoute, was even better. In the spring of 2011, he won the G2 Dante S. at York and then, as the nation prepared to celebrate the Queen's 85th birthday, he started favourite for the Derby. Unfortunately, he couldn't quite produce the result for which the nation wished, but he still ran well, finishing third to Pour Moi (Ire), beaten less than a length. He was subsequently transferred to Gai Waterhouse's stable in Australia where he performed well for the Queen in Group 1 races, including finishing third in, appropriately, the G1 Queen Elizabeth S. at Randwick in 2014.

A subsequent gift from Sheikh Mohammed was Dartmouth (Ire), a Darley-bred son of Dubawi. From 2014 to 2017 he proved to be a redoubtable campaigner, winning eight of his 20 races including, in 2016, the G3 John Porter S., the G3 Ormonde S. and the G2 Hardwicke S. at Royal Ascot. He then finished third in the G1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth S.  The following year he won the G2 Yorkshire Cup.

From the Aga Khan's kindness came even greater glory. The Darshaan mare Ebaziya (Ire) was one of the stars of the stud of HH Aga Khan IV, with several high-class offspring headed by the 1997 Irish Oaks victrix Ebadiyla (Ire) and the 1999 Gold Cup winner Enzeli (Ire). When Ebaziya was aged 20 in 2009, HH Aga Khan IV gave her Monsun filly foal to the Queen, echoing his grandfather's wedding present of Astrakhan to the young princess 62 years previously. This proved to a bountiful gift. The filly, named Estimate (Ire) and trained by Sir Michael Stoute, won twice at Royal Ascot, in 2012 taking the Queen's Vase and the following year emulating her half-brother Enzeli when carrying the royal colours to victory in the meeting's centrepiece, the Gold Cup. Estimate thus became the first Gold Cup winner owned by the Monarch, and the first winner of Ascot's greatest race owned by a member of the Royal Family since her great-grandfather Edward VII had won it (while Prince of Wales) in 1897 with Persimmon. Estimate is now happily ensconced at Sandringham and has bred two winners to date.

Looking back over the past 70 years, royal racing memories come flooding back.  Aureole came so close to a royal Derby victory in Coronation Week, while Dunfermline's Silver Jubilee Oaks triumph was perfectly timed. Looking ahead, we can dream that the Queen's Reach For The Moon (GB), a Sea The Stars (Ire) grandson of Phantom Gold, can win this year's Derby. Trained by John and Thady Gosden, he may well be able to do just that, judged on his win in the G3 Solario S. at Sandown last September. He is currently fourth favourite for the race.

We shall leave the last word on Her Majesty's place in the sport to the Aga Khan III, taken from his forward to Cope's Royal Cavalcade of the Turf: “Racing has been fortunate to have Royal Patronage from the time of the Stuarts down to today, but never has it been so fortunate as at present in having a Monarch who is not only interested in, but has knowledge of racing, horse breeding and the history of the sport and great industry into which it has developed.” Those words were very true when they were written in 1953. They are even more true today.

Click here to read Part I and Part II of this feature.

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Seventy Glorious Years, Part II

As the celebrations marking the Queen's Platinum Jubilee commence in Britain, we continue our three-part series reflecting on Her Majesty's longstanding commitment to the Turf, written by John Berry 

Aureole, who had been bred by the Queen's father, was a wonderful standard-bearer at the outset of her reign. While her father had been alive, she and her mother had begun owning jumpers, jointly enjoying their first National Hunt success when the Peter Cazalet-trained Monaveen (racing in the same colours which Astrakhan bore at Hurst Park) had won over fences at Fontwell in October 1949 before taking the Queen Elizabeth Chase at Hurst Park two months later. After Princess Elizabeth became Queen, though, her mother became the First Lady of National Hunt racing, while Queen Elizabeth took over the Royal Flat string and the Royal Studs with a passion which has never wavered in the subsequent 70 years.

This successful start to the Queen's ownership career set the tone for what was to follow. After Aureole, the next star was another Hyperion colt, High Veldt, whose finest hour came when he came closer than any other horse to beating the Italian champion Ribot when runner-up in the 1956 King George And Queen Elizabeth S. The Royal Ascot triumphs of Jardiniere in the King George V S. in 1955 and of Alexander in the Royal Hunt Cup in 1956 were great occasions, while the win of Atlas in the 1956 Doncaster Cup proved to be the first of three triumphs for Her Majesty in the race in a four-year period, with Apprentice taking the race in 1958 and '59.

It turned out that 1957 was a true annus mirabilis for the Royal string, which consisted of 21 homebreds with Boyd-Rochfort in Freemason Lodge augmented by a few horses leased from the National Stud and trained by Noel Murless in Warren Place. The monarch leasing horses from the National Stud was a tradition whose roots traced back to 1907 when King Edward VII had leased six yearlings from Colonel Hall Walker (later Lord Wavertree) from Tully Stud in Ireland, which lovely property was later given to the nation to be the National Stud and is now the Irish National Stud. Minoru was one of this sextet, while in later years the habit was revived on the advice of the royal bloodstock manager Captain Charlies Moore, with the first batch of yearlings containing both Big Game and Sun Chariot.

Three fillies in particular looked very good in the spring of 1957: the Boyd-Rochfort pair of Mulberry Harbour and Almeria, and the Murless-trained Carozza. Carozza won the Princess Elizabeth S. at Epsom and Mulberry Harbour took the Cheshire Oaks, but Almeria struggled on the downhill run in the Lingfield Oaks Trial, finishing a disappointing third. Mulberry Harbour and Carozza pressed on to Epsom for the Oaks with, sensibly, Almeria waiting instead for Ascot. At Epsom Harry Carr wore the first colours on Mulberry Harbour, leaving the 21-year-old Lester Piggott to bear a distinguishing white cap on Carozza. Mulberry Harbour ran abysmally to finish last but Carozza landed a thrilling win, holding off the late challenge of the Irish raider Silken Glider by inches. It was the first royal triumph in an Oaks at Epsom (although, of course, Sun Chariot had won a wartime substitute at Newmarket) and the first royal Classic winner at Epsom since Minoru had won the Derby for the Queen's great-grandfather Edward VII in 1909.

At Ascot, Almeria showed her Lingfield form to be all wrong by winning the Ribblesdale S. before beating Irish Derby runner-up Hindu Festival in the Bentinck S. at Goodwood. She then won the Yorkshire Oaks in a canter before taking the Park Hill S. at Doncaster. Carozza failed to repeat the excellence which she had shown at Epsom and was retired after a poor run in the Nassau S. at Goodwood, but Mulberry Harbour bounced back from her Oaks debacle (when it was suspected that she may have been doped) by taking the Newmarket Oaks in the autumn. At the end of the season, the Jockey Club handicapper rated Almeria the best 3-year-old filly trained in England, Carozza the second best and Mulberry Harbour the third best. The Queen ended the year as champion owner for a second time, with winnings of £62,211. Eleven of the 21 horses at Freemason Lodge had won a total of 23 races, with Murless providing a further seven victories.

That glorious season would clearly be hard to follow, but the following year, when the Queen finished second in the list of leading owners, contained several more treats even so. The brightest star was the Palestine 3-year-old Pall Mall, who had come to hand early in his 2-year-old season the previous year, winning on debut at Haydock before taking the New (now Norfolk) S. at Royal Ascot. On his resumption in the spring of 1958 he struggled in the heavy ground at Kempton first time out and thus failed to give the Queen a fourth consecutive win in the Kempton Park 2,000 Guineas Trial (following Alexander, High Veldt and Doutelle) but then won the Thirsk Classic Trial before, when seemingly his stable's second string, he landed a shock 20/1 victory under Doug Smith in the 2,000 Guineas, providing the Queen with her first homebred Classic winner. Smith's presence in the saddle provided a pleasing note of continuity as he had previously won a Classic up the Rowley Mile in the royal silks when guiding Hypericum to victory for King George VI in the 1,000 Guineas 12 years earlier.

The following month, Her Majesty enjoyed a Royal Ascot double when Restoration won the King Edward VII S. (then the second most valuable race at the meeting, behind only the Gold Cup) on his racecourse debut and Snow Cat won the Rous Memorial S. At Newmarket's July Meeting, Miner's Lamp, previously winner of the Blue Riband Trial S. at Epsom's Spring Meeting, won the Princess Of Wales's S., in those days the most valuable race run all season on the July Course.

Furthermore, Almeria remained in training as a 4-year-old in 1958 as did Above Board's Prince Chevalier colt Doutelle, who had been the Queen's best colt of 1957, when he had suffered a very rough passage in the Derby after winning the Lingfield Derby Trial. Doutelle got his 4-year-old season off to a great start by winning on his reappearance at Newbury before beating the champion Ballymoss in the Ormonde S. at Chester. In the summer both Almeria and Doutelle lined up in the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth S. at Ascot and they ran great races, finishing second and third behind Ballymoss, who went on to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in the autumn.

A daughter of Alycidon from the Hyperion mare Avila (who had won the Coronation S. at Royal Ascot in 1949), Almeria subsequently became an excellent broodmare, her produce including 1970 Doncaster Cup winner Magna Carta and 1971 Prix de Psyché heroine Albany, herself the dam of 1979 Queen's Vase winner Buttress. In a tragically short stud career which ended when he died after an accident in his stable in December 1962, Doutelle produced several good horses for the Queen including the 1965 Eclipse S. hero Canisbay.

The 1950s ended with the Queen's run of form continuing. She finished third in the owners' championship in 1959 with two high-class 3-year-old colts making significant contributions, including landing a double at Royal Ascot when Above Suspicion won the St. James's Palace S. and Pindari won the King Edward VII S. Pindari (who was bred on the Classic Derby winner/Oaks winner formula, being by Pinza out of Sun Chariot) subsequently won the Great Voltigeur S. at York. Furthermore, two terrific performances under big weights in handicaps stood out: Agreement, midway between his two Doncaster Cup victories, won the Chester Cup and Pall Mall finished second in the Royal Hunt Cup. It is hard to imagine the previous year's 2,000 Guineas winner running in the race nowadays!

That Royal Ascot also included another winner for the Royal Family. Bali Ha'i (NZ) had been given to the Queen Mother when she was on a tour of New Zealand the previous year. She had gone to the races at Trentham on a day when Bali Ha'i won and, on hearing that Her Majesty was admiring the horse, his owner kindly gave him to her. She brought him back to England and sent him to Cecil Boyd-Rochfort, who prepared him to win the Queen Alexandra S.

The Queen's fortunes waned during the 1960s in tandem with those of Boyd-Rochfort, who was coming to the end of his long and distinguished career. He had been champion trainer in 1958 and finished second in the table in 1959, but in 1960 his horses suffered from a virus for much of the year and he sent out only 13 winners (none owned by the Queen) from a string of nearly 60. Happily, things picked up a bit and royal winners from Freemason Lodge during the decade included Canisbay, successful in the Wood Ditton S. at Newmarket in 1964 and the Eclipse S. at Sandown in 1965; Apprentice and Gaulois, who landed successive Goodwood Cup victories in 1965 and '66, with the former having already taken that year's Yorkshire Cup; Impudent and Amicable, winners of the Lingfield Oaks Trial S. in 1961 and '63 respectively; and Hypericum's daughter Highlight, successful in the Ash S. at Kempton Park in 1961.

Arguably the best horse raced by the Queen in the 1960s was Hopeful Venture, a son of Aureole who was bred by the National Stud, from which he was leased by the Queen and sent to Noel Murless in Warren Place. He proved to be a wonderful trouper. As a 3-year-old in 1967 he won the Wood Ditton S. at Newmarket, the Grosvenor S. at Chester, the Princess of Wales's S. at Newmarket and the Oxforshire S. at Newbury. He also finished second in both the King Edward VII S. at Royal Ascot and the St. Leger. The following year he won the Ormonde S. at Chester, the Hardwicke S. at Royal Ascot and the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, beating a top-class field which included the subsequent Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Vaguely Noble.

A new trainer was added to the royal roster when Captain Peter Hastings-Bass received half of the Queen's intake of yearlings in the autumn of 1963 at Park House Stables in Kingsclere, near Polhampton Lodge Stud, on which the Queen had taken a lease the previous year to replace the old royal stud at Hampton Court. Kingsclere has been home to many of the Queen's horses ever since. Tragically, Peter Hastings-Bass died from cancer, aged only 43, the following year. The Queen remained a patron of the stable as Hastings-Bass's assistant Ian Balding (who later married Captain Hastings-Bass's daughter Emma) took over, as she subsequently also did when Balding handed over to his son Andrew in 2003. The connection with the family was further strengthened when Captain Hastings-Bass's son William (now Lord Huntingdon) started training in Newmarket in 1977 after having served as assistant trainer to Noel Murless, and he subsequently occupied the royal stables at West Ilsley through the 1990s.

One of the first horses whom William Hastings-Bass trained for Her Majesty was Australia Fair (Aus), a daughter of Without Fear (Fr) who was given to the Queen by the Australian nation as a Silver Jubilee present. Disappointingly, neither she nor her offspring achieved anything of note in the royal colours, but she did breed the high-class sprint handicapper Double Blue, a son of the Town Crier stallion Town And Country, whom the Queen's long-term racing manager, the 7th Earl of Carnarvon (formerly Lord Porchester), was standing at Highclere Stud. To continue a long-running family connection and friendship, the late 7th Earl of Carnarvon's son-in-law John Warren succeeded him in 2001 as the Queen's racing manager, a position which he holds to this day. 

Tomorrow: An enduring patron of the Turf

If you missed the first part of this series, you can catch up here.

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