LONDON — Long known as the sport of kings, today horse racing is the Sport of the Queen, as the Diamond Jubilee got underway with a familiar annual ritual, the running of the Epsom Derby.
Horse-loving Queen Elizabeth II did not have a horse in the "dah-bee," as it's known here; instead it was the appropriately named Camelot, the favorite, that won the feature race today, in front of a crowd of 150,000 racing fans, with the No. 1 fan watching in the royal enclosure.
Along with her were members of her family, including her husband, Prince Philip; her two younger sons, Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex; and two of her grandchildren, Andrew's daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.
The day was overcast, windy and cool but it was an especially colorful and cheerful derby, decorated with flags, flowers and jubilee bunting. It opened with military parachutists, bearing Union Jacks, floating down in their scarlet red jumpsuits, one of the reasons they're known as the Red Devils.
The crowds cheered and waved little flags (35,000 were handed out beforehand) as the queen and her husband arrived in a Rolls motorcade down the track. Smiling broadly, she exited the car and the Royal Marine Band struck up the familiar notes of the national anthem. Katherine Jenkins, the Welsh classical vocalist who finished second in Dancing With the Stars last month, sang God Save the Queen with gusto, although she looked slightly chilled in the cold while dressed in a creamy, strapless mermaid-tail gown, standing just a few feet away from the queen.
"This is definitely a day that I will never forget," she told the BBC later.
Unlike so many others, Jenkins was not wearing a hat for her performance but she didn't have to. By contrast, there's a strict dress code for those in the royal enclosure: Hats for women; top hats for men; and smart outfits for all. Elsewhere in the stands, fans are allowed to wear what they want and many of them apparently believe the wackier the better.
As per usual, the queen went down from the royal box to the paddock where she inspected some of the horses that competed in one of the races, the Coronation Cup, renamed the Diamond Jubilee Coronation Cup. She awarded the cup to the owner, trainer and jockey of winner St. Nicholas Abbey.
The big winner, Camelot, was trained and ridden by a father-son team, the first in derby history, adding to the historic character of this year's event.
Epsom is not just any horse-racing venue; the derby is way older than the Windsor dynasty, with the first was one in 1779. It's also one of the richest, at about $2 million. And it's free for fans.
The race also is the United Kingdom's only major one that the horsewoman-in-chief has not won. An expert in breeding, raising, training and racing horses, she has gone to the derby every year except one in her 60 years on the throne. She even attended just a few days after she was crowned in 1953, when her horse, Aureole, finished second, nearly giving the new queen a coronation victory.
Last year, her horse Carlton House, was the favorite but finished third, although it did win at another racetrack on Thursday.
Racing is one of the queen's real passions, so it's no coincidence that the derby opens the jubilee weekend. Brits are used to seeing her at the races, a standout in the royal box in her colorful hats and outfits, peering through binoculars, surrounded by family and friends. She typically visits the paddock and the winner's circle, loves talking to the trainers and jockeys, closely reads the daily racing press.
British commentators have repeatedly pointed out that no other event during jubilee weekend will be as much fun for the 86-year-old queen as the derby. Typically, she shows an enigmatic or neutral expression on her face during engagements, although lately she's been seen beaming for jubilee events. But it's at the races where she shows her excitement. One piece of video often shown features the queen at a race, grabbing her binoculars and rushing out of the royal box as one of her horses moved to the front of the pack.
Following the horses is the queen's hobby, one that provides a "relief from her daily duties," said her top-hatted (and rarely interviewed) racing manager, John Warren, interviewed by Sky News.
When the queen goes to the USA on rare private visits, she typically heads for Kentucky bluegrass country. There she visits Lane's End Farm, a top breeder owned by her friend William Farish, the former American ambassador to Britain.
And when she made her historic visit to Ireland last year, the first by a British monarch to its former colony, she made a point of spending hours at the Irish National Stud, talking horse bloodlines with people whose love of horses is as high as her own.
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