QUEEN ELIZABETH'S MAJESTIC LOVE OF ASCOT

It was an event she missed only once during her 70-year reign, so when racing fans flocked to Royal Ascot last week for the first time since Queen Elizabeth II’s death, she was very much on their minds

- TRACY SCHAVERIEN

The late monarch was never happier than when she was in the parade ring or cheering on her runners from the Royal Box, and her appearance each year in the daily carriage parade – always in a brightly coloured outfit and hat – became a focal point of the five-day race meeting.

After her death in September, Ascot said: “The world of racing has lost one of its greatest supporters.”

This year’s event opened with big screens on the racecourse playing footage of her most memorable Ascot moments, prompting applause from the crowd.

The late Queen’s love affair with Ascot began when she was still Princess Elizabeth and she was a regular fixture from just after the Second World War to her last appearance at the Berkshire racecourse in 2021.

COLOURFUL CHARACTER 

Her choice of outfits reflected the passing decades, from her postwar fitted suits to floral turban-inspired hats in the 1960s and 1970s. In later years, ensembles by her personal dressmaker Angela Kelly, always in a range of bright colours, prompted bookmakers to take bets on which she would wear.

Just as her outfits changed, so did her race-day companions, who included her mother, her sister Princess Margaret, her four children and her eight grandchildren, and Diana, when she was Princess of Wales.