Queen Elizabeth II conveys her delight to Prime Minister Scott Morrison about Australian racing

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II spoke to Prime Minister Scott Morrison over the phone on a range of matters, including the Australian racing scene — still going strong amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Michael Manley

less than 2 min read

May 6, 2020 - 10:17AM

Queen Elizabeth II leaves after a visit to open the new premises of the Royal National ENT. Picture: AFP

Queen Elizabeth II has conveyed to Prime Minister Scott Morrison her delight in Australian racing being able to continue during the COVID-19 crisis.

Morrison mentioned he took a call from the Queen on Tuesday night on his Instagram and Facebook pages.

The Prime Minister said the Queen was calling regarding the COVID-19 crisis and told him she was pleased with how well Australia had handled the crisis and also how the nation was recovering from the summer of bushfires.

“Her Majesty was very pleased to hear our horse races were still running,” the Prime Minister wrote.

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The 94-year-old Queen Elizabeth’s love of horseracing is well known and she has been one of England’s biggest owners and breeders.

Racing in the United Kingdom and Europe has ground to a halt due to the crisis while Australian racing has continued with the only stop being for a couple of days when jockey Mark Zahra’s coronavirus test came back negative March.

Queen Elizabeth owned Arabian Story who finished sixth behind Might And Power in the 1997 Melbourne Cup.

In 2016 David Hayes trained one of her horses Bold Sniper at Sandown which was her first Australian winner and later that night he took a call from her while he was watching his team the Crows play against GWS at the Adelaide Oval.

Hayes said the Queen had amazing knowledge of Australian racing and followed it closely.