Racing has lost it greatest friend, says top jockey Dettori

World-renowned jockey Frankie Dettori says “racing has lost its greatest friend” with the death of Queen Elizabeth.

“I met her many times, and she was such a kind and knowledgeable lady who had such a passion for racing. It was an emotional feeling when you rode for her and it gave you an incredible sense of pride when you rode a winner in her colours. I had winners for her at Royal Ascot and over 50 for her overall,” said Dettori.

The UK Daily Mail published this tribute to the Queen:

The flashing smile and sparkling eyes caught on camera as, from the royal box, she watched her filly Estimate win the 2013 Ascot Gold Cup was evidence, if it was needed, that Her Majesty The Queen was never happier than when on a racecourse watching her horses.

Indeed, John Warren, her racing adviser, once said: “If the Queen wasn’t the Queen, she would have made a wonderful trainer. She has such an affinity with her horses and is so perceptive.”

The only days ring-fenced in her diary every year were Derby day and Royal Ascot. The Racing Post, the sport’s dedicated daily newspaper, was a regular morning reading. The Queen loved her horses. She loved seeing them race and loved making breeding plans for her mares at the Royal Studs. There were handwritten letters each autumn to her trainers detailing the yearlings they were being sent. She also loved the trips in the spring to see them and their trainers, as well as the hours just chatting with the people who looked after her horses.

Her first flat winner was Astrakhan, who had been given to her by the Aga Khan in 1947 as a wedding present. Despite troublesome knees, he won at Hurst Park in 1950.

It would turn out to be the only flat winner to be victorious carrying the Queen’s colours of scarlet, purple hooped sleeves and black cap as in 1952, on the death of her father King George VI, she inherited the colours associated with his runners.

She would never get closer to winning British flat racing’s most prestigious race, though Sir Michael Stoute-trained Carlton House must have raised royal pulses when, despite an injury-interrupted preparation, some trouble in running and losing a shoe, the Ryan Moore-ridden colt went tantalisingly close when third to Pour Moi in 2011.

While Boyd Rochfort-trained Aureole is probably remembered most for his Derby near-miss, he also was probably the best colt the Queen ever owned, winning the 1954 King George in the season when the Queen was champion owner of the year.

Her other good horses included Dunfermline, who won the Oaks, and St Leger, ridden by Willie Carson, in 1977, the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations.

Official duties prevented the Queen attending Epsom for the Oaks and she was unable to make this summer’s Derby meeting which featured a 40-strong guard of honour for her by her past and present jockeys.

One of the Queen’s other significant horses was Highclere, the 1974 1,000 Guineas and French Oaks winner.

After being retired to stud, Highclere’s foals included Height of Fashion, who was associated with two of the Queen’s most difficult racing episodes.

The filly’s sale to Sheik Hamdan Al Maktoum in 1982 for £1.5m looked good financial sense at the time, especially when she failed to deliver on her early racing promise. But at stud for the Sheik, she proved a revelation with foals including 1989 2,000 Guineas and Derby winner Nashwan plus his hugely successful brother Nayef.

The sensitive political situation also for many years precluded the Queen using the best and dominant stallions based in the Irish Republic.

Carlton House, a gift from Sheik Mohammed, and Estimate, an 80th birthday present from the Aga Khan, led the way. Going into 2019, her string included offspring of leading sires Dubawi, Frankel and Galileo.

Her best horse of recent seasons was Dartmouth, whose eight wins included the 2016 Hardwicke Stakes, one of the Queen’s 24 Royal Ascot winners. The most recent was Tactical, winner of the 2020 Windsor Castle Stakes.