Close Encounter with HRM

Early last May 2008, I flew to Philadelphia for my second Point to

Point steeplechase in Wilmington, Delaware at Winterthur, one of

the DuPont estates with a wonderful American furniture collection.

This was only my fifth horse race. All have been specialty races.

The first two were at Ascot in 1987 and ’88. They weren’t Royal

Ascot, but the Diamond Stakes sponsored by DeBeers in honor

of King George VI. Because of that, Dennis figured the Royal

Family would attend—and he was right. We paid extra to be in the

Reserved section next to the Royal Enclosure. Queen Elizabeth,

Prince Phillip, Charles and Diana and the Queen Mum were sitting

only a few hundred feet from our seats. Anne, the Princess Royal,

rode and won one of the races. I shouldn’t have been surprised—

but as the English drive cars in the opposite direction— they run

horse races clockwise, rather than counter clockwise as we do.

When Anne won, we followed the crowd to the paddock to watch

the Queen award the prize to her daughter. Elizabeth II was wearing

a handsome yellow silk outfit with matching hat. Dennis remarked

how the Queen was perfectly at ease and adjusted her belt just like

anybody else. Why not? We had the mandatory Pimm’s cup and

spent a glorious afternoon at Ascot.

The next summer we returned for the same race. We walked by

the Queen Mum’s stately Daimler with its sterling silver Lion hood

ornament. Because of our experience the previous summer, I knew

to go to the paddock to watch the Queen award the prize after a race.

In my attempt to stride ahead to get to the paddock to watch the

Queen I nearly had a very close encounter with her Britannic Majesty.

All of a sudden two-well dressed men grabbed me & pulled me aside.

They must have seen that I was looking several hundred feet ahead to

the paddock, and that I didn’t notice that the Queen and her Lady-in-

Waiting were roughly four feet in front of me. Elizabeth II is rather

short and I was stretching my neck to look over her head. This was

before 9/11 and I wasn’t even interrogated. No doubt today I’d be

taken away.