The Prince of Wales has reminisced about his days as an amateur jockey after congratulating former England striker Michael Owen on his first race.
Owen was beaten into second place in a hard-fought charity race in aid of Charles’ countryside initiative, and waiting in the parade ring to greet the ten riders, and present them with awards, was the prince and the Duchess of Cornwall.
The ex-Liverpool and Manchester United forward, who only learned to ride earlier this year, was passed in the final stages of his debut race by Tom Chatfield-Roberts, a vet who finished strongly.
During his day at the races the prince joked about the training he did to get in shape when he took to the saddle in the early 1980s – famously falling at Cheltenham.
Ascot racecourse in Berkshire has opened its doors to hold a racing weekend for the prince’s Countryside Fund, a project started by Charles in 2010 to provide financial support and other help to rural and farming communities.
Owen, who lost more than a stone to make the riding weight, said he tired towards the end of the seven-furlong race.
He told the Daily Mirror website: “I love it, it was better than I expected. It went really quick early on – that was probably the fastest I’ve ever been on a horse.”
Owen, who rode his own mount, said: “I was telling my horse ‘come on boy, come on boy’ – he (the winner) was screaming at his horse.”
Charles and Camilla are developing a passion for horse racing, with John Warren, the Queen’s racing and bloodstock manager, describing last year that the prince has “got the bug”.
They have two horses, one-time Derby hope Carntop and Pacify, in training, with the Duchess joking in a recent interview she has high hopes.
At an Ascot fundraising lunch in aid of Charles’s Countryside Fund, the prince was presented with a framed copy of his racing silks and told the charity racing event – now in its third year – had raised more than £1 million during that period.
The heir to the throne reminisced with the guests about training to get in shape to ride: “All those years ago I remember the struggle to try and get fit, fit enough to ride in these races. I hadn’t realised until I did it just what unbelievable hard work it is.
“You go to the races, you watch people gallop past and you think ‘oh splendid’, but you don’t actually understand until you do it, what you have to get on with.
“I remember the only way I could get fit was by riding a bike, which I was recommended to, without a saddle – not something you want to take on lightly.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here