Town turns out to greet the Queen

Thousands of people turned out to greet the Queen as she arrived in Newmarket today.

The Royal visitor’s first duty was to unveil a specially commissioned statue of herself with a mare and foal celebrating her special relationship with Newmarket and the thoroughbred.

Then it was on to Palace House to officially open the new National Heritage Centre for Horseracing and Sporting Art where the Royal visitor stayed for almost an hour. During her visit she saw three of her former racehorses in the Rothschild Yard the new flagship base for the Retraining of Racehorses charity, watched as jockey Pat Cosgrave demonstrated the racehorse simulator and visited the museum’s gift shop where she was promised one of the specially commissioned Newmarket Monopoly games.

And for five-year-old Newmarket school girl, Darcy Cook, it was a very special day. In July the All Saints School pupil was involved in a life threatening car accident with her father and underwent major surgery. She is now on the road to recovery and today was chosen to meet the Queen and present her with a posy.

See next week’s Newmarket Journal for your special Royal supplement.