Racing was The Queen's passion, and she attended race meetings whenever it fitted in her schedule. While her mother had had steeplechasers The Queen's horses were flat racers, and there was nothing that she didn't know about them. Being Queen was nothing to do with the respect that she had from fellow racehorse owners, she was respected because she knew so much about her horses and had many years of experience of every aspect of breeding and training them.

I enjoyed seeing Her Majesty at several racecourses over the years, sometimes watching her own horses run privately, and sometimes as a guest of the racecourse for a particular reason. She unveiled a statue in memory of The Queen Mother at Sandown Park Racecourse, and also attended military race meetings there on occasion, although this was generally her mother's second home. In October she would attend the QIPCO meeting at Ascot Racecourse, and it was at Newmarket that I had a memorable encounter with her many years ago. This was the day that confirmed for the friend who was with me at the racing that The Queen did indeed know me. As we stood beside a path waiting to see Her Majesty leave at the end of the afternoon she paused as she passed, breaking away from her conversation, to comment to me how much better the weather had been that day than yesterday! Cue puzzled faces around us, as I was asked, with some disbelief  "What did she just say to you?" At Musselburgh Racecourse in Scotland I enjoyed the opportunity to introduce a local friend to joining Her Majesty at the races, and we had a wonderful afternoon in the sunshine.

Racecourses were generally a lovely place to observe The Queen for extended periods of time, from an unobtrusive distance, as she enjoyed her day with friends and other like minded people, and presented an opportunity to take some lovely off duty photos.

When the Queen Mother was 100, I was delighted to allow Ascot Racecourse use my exhibition of photographs of Her Majesty at the racecourse over one weekend meeting, as part of their official celebrations of the occasion.