Queen Mother Enjoyed ? Raceway Visit

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31043, 26 April 1966, Page 3

Queen Mother Enjoyed ? Raceway Visit

The Queen Mother enjoyed her visit to the Addington Raceway on Saturday to see New Zealand's top-class pacers clash in the Royal Easter Cup; and her enjoyment was shared by a crowd of more than 15,000.

For the Queen Mother a trotting meeting with such good-class horses was a new experience. She said the only trotting she had seen before was in Australia some years ago, but that it did not compare with what she saw on Saturday.

The mobile stall in the Monte Carlo Handicap was the first Her Majesty had seen, and although she had some doubts about it before the race, she told the president of the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club (Mr R. W. Saunders) after the horses had gone away in a perfect line that it had impressed her.

The weather was fine and sunny, and it matched the mood of the crowd. Patrons had gone there to greet the Queen Mother and to see what they expected would be a finish between Lordship and Robin Dundee, unbeaten in their heats of the Royal Easter Cup—and so it proved to be. As early as 9 a.m. some women with camp stools had claimed their vantage points on the rails of the birdcage, and there was a good-sized crowd by the time the Queen Mother arrived on the course at 12.15 p.m. Her Majesty was cheered as her open car drove along the track to the end of the straight before turning to the gate of the birdcage, where the Minister of Internal Affairs and his wife met Her Majesty. Mr Saunders and his wife, and the club’s secretary (Mr D. C. Parker), were presented, and then the Queen Mother’s personal standard was broken out on the flagpole as the Woolston Brass Band played the National Anthem. Members of the committee, stewards, and officials of the club and their wives were lined up and presented to the Queen Mother before she went to the Royal box in the stewards* stand. Before lunching, the Queen Mother saw the President’s Handicap, a race for three-year-old pacers that had won one or more races. The highlight of the day was the cup race, and the crowd had grown to its peak. Using Mrs Saunders’s binocular the Queen Mother followed the mile-and-five-furlong race from start to finish, and said later that she was amazed that Lordship had been able to come from

so far back (36 yards) and win so comfortably. Most people on the course believed that the Queen Mother had a small interest in Lordship and the favourite, Robin Dundee, which finished second, but Mr Saunders said that if she did he did not know about it. “Some members of the Royal household had a few winning bets,” he added.

Mr D. G. Nyhan, sen., husband of Lordship’s owner, did not meet the Queen Mother because he was busy walking Lordship around. He admitted that he had been thrilled by the win, but still

did not think the performance eclipsed Lordship’s New Zealand Cup win. After seeing the mobilestart sixth race. Her Majesty left Addington on her way back to Lyttelton and the Royal yacht. As she drove back down the track to Wrights road, she waved to those in the public stands. They waved back, and some cheered. While she was at the course she spent some time talking with Mr T. A. Leitch, president of the Canterbury Park Trotting Club, and later with Mr C. S. Thomas, a former president of the New Zealand Trotting Conference. While she was with Mr Thomas the Christchurch Caledonian Pipe Band gave a demonstration in the birdcage, and Mr Thomas, a pipe band and Scottish enthusiast, found the Queen Mother with similar interests in the day outside trotting.