The Queen has earned £8.7m from horse racing winnings as her favourite hobby turns out to be a successful one too

Plus, body language analyst reveals The Queen’s demeanour toward her horses winning demonstrates how down-to-earth she is

Since 1988, the Queen has racked up £8.7m in prize money from horse racing, one of her favourite pass times and a life-long hobby of hers.

In the last 35 years, the Queen has won 566 races and has entered horses in 3,441 races in the UK, research by OLBG has revealed.

The Queen’s best year as an owner was last year, when she amassed £584,399 and 36 wins from her horses that carry the famous colours, a purple jacket with gold braid, red sleeves and a black velvet cap with a gold fringe.

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Shaun Jeffers

Punters flock to back her majesty’s horses when given the chance and bettors backing the Queen’s horses at every opportunity will have had the best returns in 2018 when a £1 stake on each horse returned a profit of £30.19, while the worst year for backing royal runners was in 2020, where a £1 stake on every horse resulted in a loss of £81.74.

Loyal punters backing the Queen’s horse in every race over the last 35 years will find themselves £492.55 down the bookies from a £1 stake on each entry.

The Queen is a passionate supporter of horse racing and regularly attends the Epsom Derby and Royal Ascot, where she had her greatest day as a horse owner when Estimate won the 2013 Ascot Gold Cup, the biggest race of the meeting.

The Queen inherited the breeding and racing stock from King George VI, in 1952 but hasn’t been able to inspire the same passion in her children.

The Duchess Of Cornwall, however, has shown a keen interest in horse racing and has collected £134,606 since she started owning horses in 2008 with a year-high of £40,885 coming in 2016, though they have only been in the Winner’s Enclosure eight times.

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The Queen’s love of racing and the extreme passion that she shows once again just demonstrates how human and down-to-earth the Queen is as she is showing all the normal emotions that we all display. This is evident in footage of her celebrating her horse, Estimate, winning the Ascot Gold Cup in 2013; the footage of the Queen watching her horse triumph is one of the most revealing and fantastic pieces of footage of the Queen there is.

The Queen makes several interesting gestures and often leans forward when watching her horses, which is a sign of great interest. When watching her horse win, she has the most genuine and engaging expressions of enjoyment on her face. The crows feet at the side of her eyes - which everyone possesses regardless of age - are fully engaged showing that she is in a moment of most ecstatic joy. She also slams the palms of her hands down on the counter in front of her which again is a gesture we tend to make when we have just witnessed something that we are truly passionate about

She clasps her hands again, something that we do in the triumph of an achievement and then she makes a really great gesture she leans back and puts out her chest, which gesture of pride and achievement.

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The photograph of the Queen and two horses released to mark her recent birthday is interesting because the horses are very large and could easily pull away the Queen, who is naturally quite small. However, it’s clear that she has a deep rapport with both horses and they know just who is in charge.

Just like with humans that can build a connection and a bridge to other people in terms of trust integrity and openness, it is very normal for people to also build the same kind of trust with animals, especially horses.

It’s clear that the horses and the Queen have such a deep connection that she trusts them not to misbehave and they accept the Queen is in charge, so it is very much what we call in psychology a ‘power pose’ that demonstrates the Queen’s high level of confidence in her horses.

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Chris Allan

Whilst blindly betting on the Queen's horses since 1988 would have left you with rather empty pockets in most cases, the returns in prize money have mounted up substantially. Her best year to date was 2021 when over half a million pounds in prize money was amassed from 166 runners returning 36 wins in total.

A further 70 places (A better than 50% win and place strike rate) also contributed to the total of £584,399

The Queen’s record as a horse racing owner since 1988

Other Royals too have had significant racing interest, none more so that the late Queen Mother and the Duke of Westminster, and let's not forget Charles, whose figures are below, but as we see, a far lesser interest in terms of runners overall.

Prince of Wales and Duchess Of Cornwall record as horse racing owners since 2008