From USA Today
It keeps getting better for Queen Elizabeth II: Her horse won an historic Gold Cup race at Ascot today, the first time in the two centuries of the race it has been won by a reigning monarch.
The horse-loving queen, widely respected as an expert on horse breeding and racing, appeared to be delighted as she accepted the Gold Cup after her horse, Estimate, romped to victory at Royal Ascot, the annual five-day horse-racing extravaganza that brings out brightly-plumed royals and toffs alongside ordinary punters.
“One has won!” exclaimed the cheeky Daily Mail headline.
The BBC, ever ready with historical detail, reported that it was the first time in the 207-year history of the race that a reigning monarch’s horse has won the Gold Cup.
Ordinarily, the queen distributes the trophies after the races; this time, her second-eldest son, Prince Andrew Duke of York, stepped in to present the cup to his mother as she beamed. She was dressed in her usual coat-and-hat outfit in an intense lavender color, which matched the silks her jockey, Ryan Moore, was wearing for the race.
