A thoroughbred profession
The Queen really has only one real passion in life. She is known not to care much about food and drink, she doesn’t smoke, cares little for football, tennis, hockey and the like. Perhaps enjoys the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, endures the theatre and art galleries, and probably reads a bit. I don’t know, but what I do know is that she does love horses, particularly the Thoroughbred horse, and more precisely horse racing on the Flat, as opposed to National Hunt (the winter discipline of jump racing). Witness the fact that, of all her retained trainers, four train for the Flat and only one for National Hunt racing. She is interested not only in the racing of her horses but the breeding of them, too.
This past racing year saw her at her happiest when a horse she owns, Estimate, under the tutelage of one of her trainers, Sir Michael Stoute, won the Gold Cup in June at Royal Ascot. But who are the men who train the monarch's horses, and how does it all work?
The Queen has a racing manager, John Warren, who oversees and advises on all of her equine investments, in both breeding and racing. By all accounts, Warren is a popular man, not only with the Queen but also with the roundabout industry that is the breeding and racing of a Thoroughbred.
Warren is the son-in-law of the former Lord Carnarvon, who was himself the Queen’s racing manager. He was asked to advise the Queen on an ad-hoc basis when his father-in-law became too infi rm to attend the autumn yearling sales, where horses change hands for millions, and from there the son of working-class stock from Essex was launched into the multibillion-pound world of horse racing. Warren is possibly the most successful of all of the Queen’s racing managers – he is certainly one of the most astute and approachable. He is a very powerful figure in the world of international bloodstock.
As well as Sir Michael Stoute, Warren has also retained a roster of trainers on the Flat, including Derby-winning Roger Charlton, and – you won’t believe this bit – the ex-drummer with 1960s pop band The Troggs, Richard Hannon, who is so successful that he has over 200 horses in his care high up on the Wiltshire downs.
So how do you become a Royal trainer? Well, it used to be that you were either very grand or well-connected - but then witness racing manager Warren. Grand, not. But well-connected through marriage, certainly.
Michael Bell, one of the most affable trainers in Newmarket, trained a horse called Motivator, which John Warren bought and Bell tutored to win the 2005 Epsom Derby. Soon after, the horse retired to stud duties at the Queen's Sandringham Stud and he-ho, soon after that, Bell was sent some horses to train for Her Majesty. Warren and Bell are great chums and Bell has done well for the Queen.
‘There is a race meeting at Newbury that the Queen attends in a private capacity and for two of the past three years, we have trained a winner apiece for her at the fi xture,’ says Bell. ‘It is a massive privilege to train for her because she has a very active interest in the horses and she knows a lot about them. Although she has a massively busy diary, she makes an annual visit to see the horses here. She has a very good eye for a horse and to me she seems to be in her comfort zone when she is around Thoroughbreds.’
Bell trained a horse called Four Winds for the Queen, which did pretty well, and then one called Set To Music, which did even better, winning two top-class races.
The Queen and the Queen Mother in Newmarket (1960)
Back to Sir Michael Stoute, whom I met, and continue to meet, in Newmarket. It was Stoute who trained Estimate to win the Ascot Gold Cup, and before that he trained Carlton House, the hot favourite for the Epsom Derby two years ago.
When I went to see Stoute, he originally did not want me to see the horse. He certainly did not want me to visit his stable. He was not the easiest of people to interview, either. He wouldn’t give me any detail about diet or training regime, but did off er that the animal was ‘a sensible, sober horse’. I had the distinct feeling that if the horse hadn’t been owned by the Queen, he may have been more open. But when you train for HM, discretion and deference are the order of the day.
The Queen has had other trainers, too; after all, she has been an owner for more than 60 years. There was Sir Cecil Boyd-Rochfort (stepfather of the great Sir Henry Cecil), Major Dick Hern, Jeremy Tree, Ian Balding (father of Clare), and Willy Hastings-Bass, who famously abandoned racing as he said he couldn’t make it pay, even though he had a stable full of the Queen’s horses. Then there is Nicky Henderson, of whom probably the least said the better. A pillar of the racing establishment, he was found guilty by the British Horseracing Authority of doping one of the Queen’s horses in 2009, fi ned £40,000 and banned for three months. But the monarch still continues to use him to train the limited amount of jumping horses she has – after all, he is a very good trainer and she is a very forgiving monarch.
This past racing year saw her at her happiest when a horse she owns, Estimate, under the tutelage of one of her trainers, Sir Michael Stoute, won the Gold Cup in June at Royal Ascot. But who are the men who train the monarch's horses, and how does it all work?
The Queen has a racing manager, John Warren, who oversees and advises on all of her equine investments, in both breeding and racing. By all accounts, Warren is a popular man, not only with the Queen but also with the roundabout industry that is the breeding and racing of a Thoroughbred.
Warren is the son-in-law of the former Lord Carnarvon, who was himself the Queen’s racing manager. He was asked to advise the Queen on an ad-hoc basis when his father-in-law became too infi rm to attend the autumn yearling sales, where horses change hands for millions, and from there the son of working-class stock from Essex was launched into the multibillion-pound world of horse racing. Warren is possibly the most successful of all of the Queen’s racing managers – he is certainly one of the most astute and approachable. He is a very powerful figure in the world of international bloodstock.
As well as Sir Michael Stoute, Warren has also retained a roster of trainers on the Flat, including Derby-winning Roger Charlton, and – you won’t believe this bit – the ex-drummer with 1960s pop band The Troggs, Richard Hannon, who is so successful that he has over 200 horses in his care high up on the Wiltshire downs.
So how do you become a Royal trainer? Well, it used to be that you were either very grand or well-connected - but then witness racing manager Warren. Grand, not. But well-connected through marriage, certainly.
Michael Bell, one of the most affable trainers in Newmarket, trained a horse called Motivator, which John Warren bought and Bell tutored to win the 2005 Epsom Derby. Soon after, the horse retired to stud duties at the Queen's Sandringham Stud and he-ho, soon after that, Bell was sent some horses to train for Her Majesty. Warren and Bell are great chums and Bell has done well for the Queen.
‘There is a race meeting at Newbury that the Queen attends in a private capacity and for two of the past three years, we have trained a winner apiece for her at the fi xture,’ says Bell. ‘It is a massive privilege to train for her because she has a very active interest in the horses and she knows a lot about them. Although she has a massively busy diary, she makes an annual visit to see the horses here. She has a very good eye for a horse and to me she seems to be in her comfort zone when she is around Thoroughbreds.’
Bell trained a horse called Four Winds for the Queen, which did pretty well, and then one called Set To Music, which did even better, winning two top-class races.
The Queen and the Queen Mother in Newmarket (1960)Back to Sir Michael Stoute, whom I met, and continue to meet, in Newmarket. It was Stoute who trained Estimate to win the Ascot Gold Cup, and before that he trained Carlton House, the hot favourite for the Epsom Derby two years ago.
When I went to see Stoute, he originally did not want me to see the horse. He certainly did not want me to visit his stable. He was not the easiest of people to interview, either. He wouldn’t give me any detail about diet or training regime, but did off er that the animal was ‘a sensible, sober horse’. I had the distinct feeling that if the horse hadn’t been owned by the Queen, he may have been more open. But when you train for HM, discretion and deference are the order of the day.
The Queen has had other trainers, too; after all, she has been an owner for more than 60 years. There was Sir Cecil Boyd-Rochfort (stepfather of the great Sir Henry Cecil), Major Dick Hern, Jeremy Tree, Ian Balding (father of Clare), and Willy Hastings-Bass, who famously abandoned racing as he said he couldn’t make it pay, even though he had a stable full of the Queen’s horses. Then there is Nicky Henderson, of whom probably the least said the better. A pillar of the racing establishment, he was found guilty by the British Horseracing Authority of doping one of the Queen’s horses in 2009, fi ned £40,000 and banned for three months. But the monarch still continues to use him to train the limited amount of jumping horses she has – after all, he is a very good trainer and she is a very forgiving monarch.