KING Charles has been urged to do his late mum proud by attending this month’s Cheltenham Festival for the first time in 17 years.
Zara Tindall, Princess Anne’s daughter and an equestrian champion, reckons a big Royal show would be ‘great for the future’ of the multi-million pound operation.
Charles and Camilla attend Cheltenham Festival in 2006 – will they back to see their horse run this year?
Zara is a regular at Cheltenham and thinks it would be great if the King and Queen where there too this year
Charles, who recently broke with tradition by listing Camilla as co-owner of the horses he inherited from the late Queen, will have his first Cheltenham runner ever in two weeks’ time.
The Nicky Henderson-trained Steal A March is a 16-1 shot in the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle run on Thursday, March 16.
Legendary trainer Henderson, who looked after all the late Queen’s horses over jumps, believes the eight-year-old, who was bred by the late monarch herself, has a great chance of landing the £56,270 first-place prize.
But amid uncertainty over the future of Royal racing, outstanding horsewoman Zara believes having Charles and Camilla there to cheer their horse home in person would be huge for its prospects.
Zara told Sun Racing: “I think with Steal A March it would be great to see Charles and Camilla back at Cheltenham.
“Having the involvement and having the runner here would be great for the future too.
“We’ll see what happens – it’s a changing of the times.”
As a Cheltenham committee member Zara will be on site all four days, with husband Mike there as part of his hospitality venture The Green Room.
Mike memorably won more than £100,000 when his horse Monbeg Dude finished third in the 2015 Grand National.
Zara is an owner herself and hasn’t ruled out the prospect of having some more in the future… maybe even at the Festival.
But it is Steal A March who is capturing all the attention now ahead of what could be a massive year for the Royal horses.
John Warren, the Royal racing adviser, said recently it was a ‘tragedy’ the late Queen is not here to see what he believes to be her ‘best’ crop of yearlings enter training.
And for all the riches on offer at Cheltenham, there could be even bigger prizes at stake once the Flat season, which the late Queen so dearly loved, begins in earnest.
But, for now, the Festival is the main aim.
Henderson last year recalled how much racing meant to the late Queen.
He said: “I know she watched the sport and followed it avidly because when we had our Sunday morning chats she knew exactly what was going on.
“The week after Cheltenham she could have told me about every race.”
And the Seven Barrows supremo recently added his name to the list of people desperate to have the King and Queen there for Steal A March.
Speaking of his association with The King and Steal A March, Henderson said: “He won at Worcester on Derby Day last year, which was very special as it was on Jubilee weekend.
“We were all trying to get winners that weekend for The Queen.
“The Queen Consort has had horses of her own before, but I think he was The King’s first jumps winner. He’s improved a fair bit all of a sudden.
“We’ve got quite a strong team for the race to be fair, but I was impressed with Steal A March the last time.
“It would be nice to have him run – it would be very nice to have him win of course – but it would be lovely if they could come to watch.
“It would be good for racing.”
