King Charles only has eyes for one horse, and it’s not one of his late mother’s famous racehorses. QEII spent decades loving and breeding horses. She always attended the biggest races in the UK, and she was gifted many prize horses throughout her reign. She spent a lot of time and money developing her horse-breeding program. When QEII died, King Charles immediately began briefing the press about his plans to dismantle his mother’s operation and sell all of her horses. I think Queen Camilla talked him out of that position, although he did sell off some of his mother’s stable. In the past year, Charles has been trying to rebrand himself as someone who shares his mother’s obsession with horses. He even made a surprise appearance at Epsom a few weeks ago to watch one of his horses come in last place (lmao). Well, ahead of Royal Ascot, we’re once again talking about Charles and horses. Buckingham Palace is really laying it on thick, giving Roya Nikkhah at the Times a full briefing about how Charles is a late-in-life horse enthusiast.

After the death of the most ardent, longstanding patron of horse racing in history — Elizabeth II — the industry feared that the royal seal of approval for the sport would be lost. Charles, they noted, had never shared her fervour for the turf. Some say she would have preferred to be a stud manager than Queen. But the King has quietly been building his own passion for the sport that his late mother adored, despite the challenges of his new role and a cancer diagnosis.

Those close to Charles say he watches the birth of his foals on an iPad via a live feed from the Sandringham royal stud, eagerly anticipates receiving photographs of how they are developing and tunes in to see all his runners on television.

When Royal Ascot starts on Tuesday, Charles, 75, who is still receiving cancer treatment, is expected to attend every day except Wednesday, with the Queen, 76, attending every day. They will “potentially” have runners on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Last year both were visibly emotional when their horse, Desert Hero, bred by the late Queen, took the George V stakes to become their first Ascot winner. Many punters were surprised to see the King and Queen follow Desert Hero to Doncaster last September, where they watched him finish third in the St Leger.

Nick Smith, the director of racing and public affairs at Royal Ascot, said: “Racing has never had and will never have a patron who was as passionate for such a long time as Queen Elizabeth II, and so there was anxiety about the transition. But to see the King and the Queen’s genuine engagement is fantastic.”

A source said: “Desert Hero was a big kick for the King, once he started having winners he became much more engaged, not only in his runners but in the breeding programme at the royal stud. But he’ll never be like his mother, who would have preferred to have been a stud manager than Queen.”

[From The Times]

LMAO, this is such a turn-around from the palace briefings in October 2022, I have to think that Buckingham Palace did some polling on it and there were high-level discussions about how to position Charles. England is a horse-loving nation, and it rubbed people the wrong way that Charles’s first instinct, as king, was to dismantle something his mother had built for decades. I do not believe Charles watches the foals, nor do I believe he gives a sh-t about what’s happening in his stables. Now, sure, he probably enjoys the races. But they’re positioning him as super-involved in the hopes that people will say “oh, he’s just like his mother.”

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.