'An estimated 500,000 racegoers flocked to the famous Downs for the Derby'

An extract from Julian Muscat’s book Her Majesty’s Pleasure focuses on the exploits of the Queen’s Derby second in her Coronation year.

On the morning of her Coronation in 1953 the queen-in-waiting was asked by a lady-in waiting how she was feeling. She replied that she was very well: Cecil Boyd-Rochfort had just called to relate that Aureole had completed his Derby preparation with a pleasing gallop in Newmarket earlier that morning.

The exchange is revelatory. On this of all mornings very few messages would have been deemed sufficiently important to relay to a woman who already had more than enough to think about.

Conversely, of course, Aureole would have been very close to the Queen’s heart: he was bred by her late father, whose myriad responsibilities were about to be formally invested in her. There was a pleasing symmetry to the parallel that Aureole had shown himself to be as devoted to his own cause as his owner was to hers.

Aureole was plainly in rude health as the Queen contemplated what lay ahead. In a few hours she would take the Coronation Oath before 8,000 invited guests, among them numerous prime ministers and heads of state.

She would be bound to serve her people, and to maintain the laws of God. Outside Westminster Abbey an estimated three million people lined the streets of London for a first glimpse of the new Queen. Beyond the capital, more than 20 million watched on television in Britain and countless other countries around the world, courtesy of a BBC broadcast in 44 different languages.

It is fair to say that 16 months of Coronation preparations were about as long as she had entertained the Derby dream on Aureole’s behalf. Aureole had a peak of his own to scale on the day The Times exclusively proclaimed Everest had finally been conquered.

Coronation Day also carried a broader significance. George VI had been ill for some time before he would die of lung cancer in February 1952. In the post-war chapter of his reign, his absences from public life meant he was unable to rally the public in the same way he and his wife had done during the war, when they became symbols of the fight against fascism.

The fact that they refused to leave London – and kept their children with them – saw them confront the same wartime dangers as their subjects. However, optimism was in short supply in the post-war years and Coronation Day was seen as the emblem of a new beginning. A vibrant, attractive, 26-year-old princess would be crowned on June 2, 1953.

In Newmarket, Aureole did his bit to maintain the celebratory mood. Boyd-Rochfort, who attended the Coronation, felt sure the horse was ready to excel in the royal silks at Epsom. He was certainly bred for the part. His dam, the Oaks runner-up Angelola, was half-sister to no less a runner than Hypericum, whom the Queen had seen winning the 1946 1,000 Guineas in her father’s silks. Given that Hypericum was by Hyperion, it made perfect sense to breed Angelola to the same sire. Aureole was the consequence.

Aureole was quite a handful as a foal. There was no malice in him but he would do little unless he consented to what was being asked of him. He was both impetuous and inclined to decant his rider at exercise, but he never came to harm. What’s more, Boyd-Rochfort had him tagged from the start as a colt of great potential.

Boyd-Rochfort was slightly unsure what to expect when Aureole made his racecourse debut. He needn’t have worried. Sent to York, Aureole recovered from a slow start to run down the leader and win a competitive race at the first time of asking.

He ran once more in 1952 when he trailed throughout the Middle Park Stakes, but the fact Boyd-Rochfort chose to start this inexperienced colt in the season’s most important two-year-old race was a harbinger of things to come.

Following the winter recess Aureole’s passage to the Derby went as planned. The Queen watched him run with promise in the 2,000 Guineas to finish close up in fifth place behind Nearula, who had beaten Aureole pointless in the Middle Park Stakes.

He was subsequently sent to Lingfield, where he cut a dash in winning the Derby trial, and his preparation for Epsom was now complete. He had improved with every outing and was ready to run with the best.

If Coronation Day unfolded around pomp and ceremony, Derby day allowed the nation to let down its collective hair. A rainy preamble gave way to glorious sunshine as the hordes descended on Epsom. An estimated 500,000 racegoers flocked to the famous Downs, where Aureole was the overriding story but by no means the only one.

Sir Gordon Richards, knighted in the Coronation Honours List just days earlier, had yet to win the great race. His 27 previous rides had all come up short; the unwelcome prospect loomed that a jockey many still maintain was the best of all time might never savour the thrill of Derby victory.

“There were mixed emotions on the day,” remembered Sir Peter O’Sullevan. “Although it would have been brilliant for the Queen to win at her first attempt, it was always a concern that Gordon was running out of time.”

Aureole was not quite so relaxed. In the paddock his pre-race nerves were manifest as he broke out into a sweat, and he took a strong hold of his bit when jockey Harry Carr guided him down to the post.

Carr later related he was still hopeful of winning until he saw the imposing figure of Pinza, with Richards aboard, at the Derby start. And so it transpired. Pinza ran out a clear winner from Aureole, who came forward from midfield to claim second place, four lengths adrift.

The vast crowd displayed no sense of anti-climax. Any regret that Aureole had been outrun was more than mitigated by victory for Richards. Back then, with racing in its heyday, Sir Gordon was one of Britain’s iconic sportsmen.

No-one could take exception to him breaking his Derby duck in the twilight of his career. Certainly not the Queen: she’d wished Richards luck in the paddock before the race, and he had reciprocated. Now she summoned him for a private audience. “She knew time was running out for me and she showed herself a marvellous sport,” Richards related afterwards.

Her Majesty’s Pleasure, by Julian Muscat, is available for £20 from racingpost.com/shop