Queen Anne, to whom the opening race of the Royal meeting is dedicated to, was, at 46, a fat old maid, hardly able to walk. She had endured eighteen pregnacies, many of which ceased with miscarriages and not one of her children who survived until birth lived beyond the age of eleven. She was Queen of all she surveyed, yet, apart from her gluttony, horse racing and hunting, life was hardly worth the effort to her. She ascended the throne aged 41, though she was so prone to gout that she had to be transported down the aisle in Westminster Abbey in a sedan chair. And some say royalty have it easy!
Her great grandfather, James the first, rode in races and built a palace in Newmarket, perhaps mainly to be close to his favourite mistress, Nell Gwyn. As Anne is famous for the founding of Ascot racecourse, James elevated Newmarket from a village of no renown to the place that is known in modern times as the headquarters of the sport in Britain. James did not have the idea of a racecourse at Newmarket, and the Rowley Mile, though it became a well-known pet name for James, was actually the name of his hack, Old Rowley. Anne kept the Royal Buckhounds on Ascot Heath and it was while watching them at exercise it is said that idea or racing horses on the Heath came to her. We must never forget Queen Anne's contribution to our sport. We must bless her little cotton socks for giving us, three-hundred-years later (or there abouts), Ascot Heath and most of all Royal Ascot.
In the early days of racing, even at the Royal Meeting, people would attend in carriages or on horseback, with some even galloping up the course in pursuit of those horses that were actually racing. Now the only non-thoroughbreds that can legally step onto the hallowed turf are the carriage horses that take the King and Queen and their guests from their lunch to the parade ring or, as our much missed Queen Elisabeth was known to do, gallop her hack on the course first thing in the morning. How our dear Queen would have loved to race-ride, as did two of her children. Ian Balding said of her that she was a frustrated trainer.
It is what makes our racing so unique; the sport so enduringly linked with the royal history of our country, except, of course, for the Kier Starmer of his day, when Oliver Cromwell banned the sport, along with all other forms of entertainment. It is why we, or I, must endure all the Royal processions, the fascinators, the unsightly sight of men looking ridiculous in their morning suits (mourning) and top hats. And I will endure, kept fascinated and entertained by the joy of witnessing the best that flat racing can provide. I will doubtless not tip a winner from the Queen Anne to the Queen Alexandria Stakes, though I fancy More Thunder to overturn Notable Speech, a horse who is a little too inconsistent for my liking. I also fancy Puerto Rico to claim the St. James' Palace Stakes in a sort of back the outsider of three in a three- horse race.
If you remember the Ascot Stakes from last year when Reaching High was the unluckiest of losers, passing the finishing post after 2-miles 4-furlong still hard held by Ryan Moore, though the form book details him only finishing ninth, you might think him a good thing in the latest renewal of the race. Last year, an ignorant observer might have thought that republican rebels had arranged for most of the jockeys to stop the royal runner, given he had enough running room to hold a small barn dance, yet hemmed in right, left and in front, preventing him from advancement of his position. Ryan is back for another go, with the horse on the same mark due to having not run since, not because the horse has been injured but simply to protect his mark. That sort of patience on behalf of an owner deserves the reward of a winner. Crossed-fingers the King and Queen are recipients of that reward this afternoon.