The Queen’s racehorses have raked in £6.7 million (US$8.8 million) in prize money over the past 30 years, new figures show. Last year was her best in recent decades, with her horses earning £557,650.
Since 1988, Her Majesty has recorded an impressive 451 race wins from 2,215 runs, according to research by the website myracing.com. She has an average 15 race wins a year, and a success rate of 15.9 percent.
Despite famously never having won the Epsom Derby in 10 attempts at the trophy, she is still the 11th most-successful owner in flat racing.
Read more
So far this year she has won 20 on the flat and earned £413,641. This follows last year’s best-ever result.
It is understood that the majority of the winnings go to the horses’ trainers. Buckingham Palace says the matter is “private” and declined to provide a breakdown of the distribution, according to the Times.
The Queen has 24 horses that have run this year, and possibly others that have not run. It typically costs between £25,000 and £35,000 a year to keep a horse in training.
The Queen was given her first pony at the age of four and inherited a string of thoroughbreds from her father, George VI.
She won her first race in 1949 as Princess Elizabeth, aged 23, when a steeplechaser called Monaveen won at Fontwell Park. Despite that success over fences, for most of her life she has stuck to the flat track.
The myracing.com figures show that her most successful horse at present is Merlin, trained by Michael Bell, which has won three out of eight and earned £21,768.
Her most recent win was with Seniority at Kempton Park on October 11.
Comments are closed.