IT’S known as the Sport of Kings for a reason.
Horse racing’s close ties with the Royal family date back to the days of the Great Fire of London.
The future of the Royal racing operation is uncertain
Queen Consort Camilla is overseeing major changes to the Royal racing operation
According to history buffs, King Charles II was ‘never happier’ than on his regular visits to Newmarket, where he would relax on the heath watching horses galloping up Warren Hill.
He established the world’s first racing yard at Palace House Stables and in 1666 organised the Town Plate – a race run over three and three quarter miles which is still staged to this day.
Every monarch since Charles II has had a racing operation in one form or another, with varying degrees of success.
Fast forward 350 years, it’s fair to say that King Charles III does not share the same sort of love for the turf as his namesake.
As Prince Of Wales he owned a handful of runners in shared ownership with the then Duchess Of Cornwall, without much luck.
His best horse was Pacify, who retired in 2020 with eight wins and a shade over £110,000 in earnings in the bank.
In fact, he hadn’t ventured into racehorse ownership until 2008, three years after his marriage to racing-mad Queen Consort Camilla.
That isn’t to say he doesn’t have any interest at all in the sport.
He is a Jockey Club member and even tried his hand as an amateur jockey in the early 1980’s, riding in six races including the Kim Muir Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.
He caused a bit of a scare when his horse Good Prospect crashed into the 10th fence and sent the heir to the throne flying through the air.
There were gasps from the crowd as he hit the deck, but after beating the floor in frustration he got to his feet and trudged back into the weighing room without a scratch.
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It is said, though, that Charles’ indifference towards the sport stems from his dislike of pompous ‘horsey’ people, and he prefers to socialise with friends and family during Royal Ascot in June.
Racing was a lifelong passion for his late mum, but it was always a strong likelihood the Royal operation would be scaled back during King Charles’ reign.
The Royal Stud, which is spread across 300 acres of the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, is home to 38 broodmares, female horses who are used for breeding, and some 30 foals.
This is where the next generation of Royal runners are born and raised, and security at the stud is so tight you’d have a better chance of breaking into the Tower of London.
When horses become yearlings, they are allocated to the roster of eight Royal trainers and transported off to their new homes for the start of their racing careers.
The Queen would regularly catch-up over the phone with her trainers, a task which was said to be her favourite of the week.
One source close to trainer Michael Bell revealed that, just a few days before her death, he spoke to her about sending a Royal runner for a race at Pontefract.
And The Queen playfully spent the rest of the conversation with Bell speaking in a Yorkshire accent.
The racing operation left behind by The Queen is being downsized
Just Fine – the King’s first winner – will be sold at the sales this week
She was heavily invested in the breeding of her horses, so much so that she had stud boss David Somers install CCTV throughout the stables so she could watch her foals being born “on her iPad”.
Somers revealed that he would often be on the phone with Her Majesty while her mares were in labour, talking her through the birthing process and giving her round the clock updates.
But King Charles is making plans to reduce the size of the operation at Royal Stud, which were founded in the late 1800’s, with one Royal insider claiming the site could become “a museum” within a few years.
The number of horses in training is expected to be drastically reduced, too.
It costs around £25,000 in fees to keep a horse in training for a full year and at the time of her death The Queen had 37 horses in training – an eye-watering annual bill of £925,000.
That is before the huge expense of running and maintaining the Royal Stud, which runs into seven figures each year, comes into account.
The first of a dozen Royal runners will go under the hammer at the Tattersalls Horses In Training Sale in Newmarket on Tuesday, the first clear sign that the operation is being downsized.
Among them is Just Fine, who gave the King his first winner at Leicester on October 4, and Love Affairs, The Queen’s final winner.
Interestingly, the horses who are being sold at auction were not bred by the Queen, but gifted to her by the controversial ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed.
The roster of Royal trainers, which includes the legendary Sir Michael Stoute and John Gosden, is also set to be slimmed down.
But one trainer who won’t be nervously waiting by the phone for bad news is Ralph Beckett.
He bonded with Charles and Camilla over a love of hunting and trained several horses for them – so he is expected to be added to the Royal roster.
For all the talk of cutbacks, it isn’t all doom and gloom.
Queen Consort Camilla, a big racing fan who presented the trophy to the winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on British Champions Day, has taken over the day-to-day running of the racing operation.
In an interview with ITV Racing last summer she said: “Royal Patronage of racing is extremely important, for the whole industry. I hope it will continue.”
She isn’t believed to be as hands on as The Queen, but she receives regular updates from the Royal racing manager John Warren.
He has begun a slow transition out of the job, having recently linked up with a group of young Bahraini owners, though the list of potential replacements has so far been kept top secret.
The traditional Royal Procession at Ascot will continue and there are a crop of exciting horses who could carry the King to some big-race wins next year, including Circle Of Fire.
It is hoped he will develop into a Derby contender in 2023 in a bid to end the 114-year wait for a reigning monarch to win the Epsom Classic – for all he is currently a longshot at 66-1.
The odds are much better that Royal runners will continue to grace British racecourses – but for how long remains to be seen.
