Queen to miss first day of Royal Ascot races as her ‘special’ horse runs

Prince Charles and Camilla will take her place in the lead carriage

The Queen is a passionate horse breeder (Mike Egerton/PA) (PA Archive)

The Queen will not attend the first day of the Royal Ascot, with the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall taking Her Majesty’s place in the lead carriage instead.

Royal Ascot is set to run from Tuesday 14 June to Saturday 18 June, and historically the Queen has attended several races across the event.

However, details of the traditional carriage procession featuring the royals was released ahead of the first race at Ascot on Tuesday.

Prince Charles and Camilla will travel in the lead carriage with Peter Philips, the son of Princess Anne.

The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Prince and Princess Michael of Kent will travel in the second carriage, while Anne will travel with guests in a third carriage.

The procession will travel along the racecourse and past the stands.

Her Majesty will miss the first of her horses, King’s Lynn, run in The King’s Stand Stakes race today.

The Queen’s absence from the event comes a day after she made an appearance at the Garter Day celebrations in Windsor yesterday.

Her Majesty was pictured with Charles and Camilla to mark the Order of the Garter service on Monday.

It marked the first time the Queen had been pictured since she made a surprise appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony at the end of the platinum jubilee pageant last Sunday.

The Queen’s appearance was just the third from the monarch across the weekend, after she pulled out of her scheduled service of thanksgiving appearance on the Friday of the bank holiday weekend.

Her Majesty is marking her 70th year on the throne this year, and her platinum jubilee celebrations saw a Trooping the Colour parade, the lighting of platinum beacons, and a party at the palace.