King Charles was celebrating a huge festive joy this week, as his horse, Steal a March, won the monarch's first ever jumps race at Wincanton on Boxing Day.
The horse won a handicap hurdle, picking up £13k in prize money for His Majesty, a significant win for the new monarch and his first victory in a National Hunt race, where horses have to jump obstacles.
The King has a long love of horses
The new King will keep around 80% of his winnings, while 10% will go to the jockey, and another 10% to the trainer. The win will no doubt have been proudly celebrated in Sandringham, where the King and his Queen Consort Camilla are still spending the festive period, but it will have been tinged with sadness, as his mother, the late Queen, would of course have been delighted to celebrate the win had she still been with us.
WATCH: The Queen's love of horses through her life
Queen Elizabeth II was a keen equestrian as can be seen in the video above. She owned hundreds of racehorses, which have been inherited by King Charles since her sad passing in September. And while most of the Queen's horses raced on the flat, she also owned a small number of jumpers, one of which was Steal a March.
In a touching coincidence, the last time the seven-year-old horse won a race was on June 4, in the middle of the Queen's joyful Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Happier times for the royal family of course, but no doubt King Charles will be thrilled that the horses continue to perform well in his mother's memory.
The Queen's passion for horses was second to none
Many worried that news of King Charles selling a number of her majesty's former horses in October marked a shift in the new monarch's approach to horse riding, but experts in the field cautioned against drawing conclusions, as the Queen herself sold horses every year.
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It is thought that the Queen Consort Camilla may take up the Queen's passion and step into her horse racing shoes, after spending a lot of time chatting to jockeys and grooms at Royal Ascot this year. However, talking of the late Queen's commitment to horses, Queen Consort Camilla insisted her passions and skills were many leagues behind her husband's mother's.
"She can tell you every horse she’s bred and owned, from the very beginning, she doesn’t forget anything," Camilla said. "I can hardly remember what I bred a year ago, so she’s encyclopaedic about her knowledge."
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