The Queen has also been present at some of the most famous events in British sporting history. He presented the Jules Rimet Trophy to England captain Bobby Moore when the national football team won the men’s World Cup by beating West Germany at Wembley Stadium in 1966. She was in the Royal Box on Center Court at Wimbledon when British player Virginia Wade won the women’s singles title in 1977, the centenary of the tournament. And, more recently, he had a presentation at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, filming a comedy sketch with James Bond actor Daniel Craig in which the Queen – well, stuntman, anyway – jumped out of a helicopter and flew with a parachute. the Olympic Stadium. She allowed Danny Boyle, who directed the ceremony, and his crew access to her rooms at Buckingham Palace for a one-day shoot a few months earlier. Horse racing was her great love, however, and she was often seen visiting the Royal Stud on her Sandringham estate, patting her horses tenderly. The Queen’s Plate, North America’s longest continuously running stakes race, was first run in Toronto, by royal sanction, on June 27, 1860. Queen Elizabeth attended four of the races at Woodbine Racetrack, the last being in 2010 during her last visit to Canada. “We are very grateful for Her Majesty’s support over the years and will honor her legacy by continuing to share our love of horses with people around the world,” said Jim Lawson, CEO of Woodbine Entertainment. After the 163rd running of this summer’s Queen’s Plate, Woodbine sent its traditional telegram to the Queen to celebrate its winning horse, Moira. In turn, Buckingham Palace presented its traditional 50 guineas, symbolizing the race’s original purse, to the owner of the winning horse. “My philosophy on racing is simple,” he told a BBC documentary, The Queen’s Racehorses: A Personal View. “I like to breed a horse that is faster than others. “And for me, this is a bet from a long time ago. I like going to the races, but I guess basically I like horses and a thoroughbred is the epitome of a really good horse for me.” The Queen has had almost 2,000 winners as a racehorse owner, with her riders always wearing purple, gold and red – the colors of the famous royal racing silks also used by her father and great-grandfather, King Edward VII. Her first winner was a horse called Monaveen, at Fontwell in 1949, and she went on to win all the so-called ‘classics’ in British horse racing except The Derby, another event she attended most of her life. One of the Queen’s most famous victories came at Royal Ascot in 2013 when Estimate became the first horse owned by a reigning monarch to win the prestigious Gold Cup. It was her first win in an elite race since 1989 and she was seen cheering enthusiastically as jockey Ryan Moore powered past to finish first by a neck in front of 61,000 fans. Michael Stoute, who trained the Queen’s horses, said winning races gave her a “special thrill”. “She really likes this game,” he said after Estimate’s win, “and it’s a great recreation for her.” She was the champion owner in British flat racing on two occasions, in 1954 and ’57. The Queen even attended America’s biggest horse race, the Kentucky Derby, in 2007 while visiting the heart of US racing in the bluegrass country of Kentucky. Following the announcement of the Queen’s death, the British Equestrian Authority said racing in Britain for the rest of Thursday and Friday would be suspended “as we begin to mourn the death of Her Majesty and remember her extraordinary life and contribution to the sport.” us and our nation”.
More AP Sports: and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Steve Douglas, The Associated Press
