Coronation Day win at the races for the Queen
The monarch’s horse First Receiver stormed to victory at Kempton.
The Queen has celebrated the anniversary of her coronation with a win at the races.
First Receiver, owned by the monarch, won the 3.55 Unibet Extra Place Offers Every Day/British Stallion Studs EBF Maiden Stakes at Kempton.
The colt’s success came on the 67th anniversary of the day the Queen was crowned in 1953.
The Queen, an avid racing fan, is likely to have been watching live televised coverage of the race in Surrey from Windsor Castle, the day after racing resumed behind closed doors.
Racing was one of the first elite competitive sports to return in England since the coronavirus outbreak, with meetings beginning at Newcastle Racecourse on Monday following an 11-week break.
Races are taking place behind closed doors with a no-spectators policy, and with strict hygiene and social distancing rules being enforced.
With First Receiver winning by a long way, Kempton Park Racecourse tweeted the victory was “Social Distancing at its finest”.
Trained by Sir Michael Stoute, First Receiver was ridden by jockey Ryan Moore who wore the Queen’s racing colours – purple body with gold braid, scarlet sleeves and black velvet cap with gold fringe.
The Queen is known for her lifelong love of horses and heralded for her knowledge of breeding and bloodlines.
She had her first riding lesson at the age of three, and now, at 94, was pictured on one of her fell ponies at Windsor over the weekend.
She acquired her own racing colours in 1949 when she and her mother jointly bought the steeplechaser Monaveen, which became the first winner in the princess’s colours the same year.
In a 30-year stretch up to 2017, the Queen won around £6.7 million in prize money from horse racing.
Her horses have won every classic except the Derby.
In 2013, the Queen’s horse Estimate claimed victory in Royal Ascot’s Gold Cup – the first time in the race’s 207-year history that it had been won by a reigning monarch.
