A love of horseracing

By CNN's Avril Stephens

The Queen Mother's enthusiam for racing spanned four decades and more than 400 winners

LONDON, England (CNN) -- One of the Queen Mother's passions was horseracing, and she was regarded as the first lady of the steeplechase for more than four decades.

She saw her horses win at least 400 times at major races thanks to a variety of trainers and jockeys.

But she will be best remembered for the 1956 Grand National in which her horse, Devon Loch, was leading, only to collapse yards from the line. He half-leapt just 50 yards from the finish, sprawling and unseating his jockey, Dick Francis, and leaving the crowd stunned.

Francis went on to become a crime writer with one of his greatest readers being the Queen Mother.

He said at the time of the race: "The calamity which overtook us was sudden, terrible and completely without warning to either the horse or me.

"In one stride he was bounding smoothly along, a poem of controlled motion; in the next, his hind legs stiffened and refused to function."

Mystery still surrounds the event, and the Queen Mother never came near to winning the Grand National again. But it didn't dim her love of horses.

She was always to be seen enjoying the races whether in victory or defeat.

The Queen Mother went through a comparatively quiet period between 1956 and the mid-'60s apart from the exploits of one of her favourite horses, Double Star, which never once fell in 50 races and won 17 times.

Although still dogged by ill luck in the big races, the Queen Mother reached a high point in the 1964-65 season when she had 27 wins, making her the third most successful owner that year.

The Queen Mother, June 13, 2001

Her horses of that era are well remembered by racing fans:

* There was The Rip, another royal favourite who was found by the Queen Mother herself near Sandringham and won 13 races for her.

* Another favourite was Laffy, which fell victim to a doping ring in 1962 but recovered to take his royal victories to 12.

* Game Spirit won 21 races before dying of a massive lung haemorrhage at Newbury while his owner was in the stands.

The Queen Mother may have had a much-reduced string of winners in the 1980s and 1990s, but Barnbook Again won the National Hunt Festival in 1989 and 1990 -- accounting for two of her 15 victories at the event over the years.

She remained an ardent racegoer, turning up in Wellington boots at wet and windy Lingfield or Sandown on bleak winter days to present the prizes or just to enjoy the sport.

Late private secretary and long-term friend Sir Martin Gilliatt said: "I suppose the Queen Mother would be considered rather an unlucky owner.

"Apart from Devon Loch, rather more of her horses than is average were killed in action, sometimes when she was present.

"But her greatest consideration was always for the trainer and jockey, and for the stable staff who looked after them."

Her love of racing has been marked by one of Britain's greatest races being named after her, the Queen Mother Champion Chase, a classic middle-distance steeplechase that takes part during the Cheltenham Festival.

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