Newbury Racecourse in Berkshire was a special place to see Her Majesty enjoying her passion for horse racing, and for a number of years I attended the two day meeting close to her birthday, where she would spend a couple of very happy days. She would arrive by the royal box entrance to the grandstand, and would either go inside or walk immediately to the parade ring to see the horses. She often had multiple horses running during the afternoon, and there was ample opportunity to see her chatting with her trainers and jockeys, along with her racing manager, checking out her horses and the competition before the races, and watching from the royal box. This was The Queen off duty and indulging in a passion, and she was known and respected as an expert on the subject of her horses. 

I have many happy memories of afternoons spent at Newbury, and there is one in particular that always makes me smile when I think of it. I usually did this day out on my own from home, meeting friends at the racecourse for lunch, but it was the school Easter holidays, so on the Friday my Mum came with me, and we took my young godsons with us. They had a lovely day, spending most of the afternoon beside the finishing post with my Mum, while I wandered about the racecourse photographing The Queen, returning to join them for the end of each race. We all had an enjoyable day and I went home very pleased with my photos. The following day I returned alone. A while after she had arrived Her Majesty set off for the parade ring. While photos of The Queen walking through the crowd were always good to get, the golden rule was never to be in her path, and I wasn't going to risk getting in her way just for a photo, so I took a couple and then moved to the side. The Queen continued walking towards the ring, and I stayed to the side. There is a very narrow gateway that she needed to walk through, and there were people standing on either side of it, so she was following a narrowing path, but I felt at one point as if Her Majesty was walking straight towards me, and I moved further over, but she seemed still to be on a bee line for me. It was vey bizarre, so I moved in behind a row of people by the gate, right out of the way, only for her to continue to follow me, pausing as she reached the gate and peering around the very tall man behind whom I had hidden myself, and saying, with a big smile "I see you are allowed out on your own today then!" I had been right, she had been following me, and she was determined to corner me! Laughing, she continued into the ring to meet her jockey, while I wondered how on earth she had known that I hadn't been on my own yesterday - I had been alone every time I had been near her. And suddenly it dawned on me - The royal box looks directly at the finishing post, and where had I met up with Grannyo, Charlie and Edward multiple times the previous day?! Nothing ever got past The Queen, and if she was curious about a situation she would just ask you - or she asked me anyway, more than once.