IT is a troubling time for the British Royal family, but at least King Charles and Queen Camilla can gain some delight from their racehorses. In recent weeks they have had two runners, both trained by John and Thady Gosden, and both have won at Newcastle.

The most recent winner is Rainbows Edge, a three-year-old daughter of Night Of Thunder (Dubawi) bred by the King’s late mother, Queen Elizabeth II. She won in fine style and looks well capable of graduating to stakes company. Should she do so she would be following in some fine hoofprints, as three of her siblings are group/graded stakes winners. They are all out of a mare who was purchased as a yearling by John Warren for 72,000gns.

Queen Elizabeth had a ringside seat at Royal Ascot in 2010 as she watched Memory (Danehill Dancer), bred by Swordlestown Stud, scorch to victory in the Group 3 Albany Stakes, carrying the colours of Highclere Thoroughbreds. Later in the year she scaled an even greater height when she added the Group 2 Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cherry Hinton Stakes to her tally of three juvenile wins.

Chosen at the Tattersalls Book 1 Yearling Sale by John Warren, the Queen’s racing manager, in his other role as agent for Highclere, Warren was in a strong position to advise her of the value of the Irish-bred daughter of Danehill Dancer (Danehill), and Memory was withdrawn from the December Sale in 2011 when a deal was struck to sell her to join the broodmare band at Sandringham Stud. Press reports suggest the price was £500,000.

Since she went to stud Memory has been keeping the best of company – Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), Frankel (Galileo), Dubawi (Dubai Millennium), Kingman (Invincible Spirit), Palace Pier and Baaeed (Sea The Stars) to be precise. Her first three progeny of racing age are stakes winners, while six of her first eight foals are winners, one was placed and the other was unraced.

First up was Recorder (Galileo). He won the Group 3 Acomb Stakes before retiring to stud in France. A stakes sire, he relocated to Ireland for this year’s covering season. He was followed by Call To Mind (Galileo) who won the Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup for the Queen and trainer William Haggas, having previously been runner-up in the Group 2 Prix Chaudenay and third in the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup. He also won the Listed March Stakes at Goodwood.

Learn By Heart (Frankel) was next, a stakes-placed two-year-old winner who was sold for 160,000gns. He won a large part of that back in Scandinavia and was a Group 3 winner in Sweden.

Dual winner Space Walk (Galileo) was followed by Dusty Dream (Dubawi), a placed two-year-old who is now a member of the broodmare band at Michael O’Leary’s Plantation Stud. The unraced Thought Process (Galileo) has a yearling filly by Dubawi and a filly foal by Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj), and normal service was resumed for Memory with her seventh foal, Reminder (Dubawi). She won twice last year.

Winning sequence

Rainbows Edge continues the winning sequence, while the intriguingly named Royal Equerry (Kingman) is Memory’s two-year-old daughter. Last year she foaled a daughter by Palace Pier who is reviewed in this week’s paper, and Memory then visited Baaeed. With 10 foals in 11 years, Memory has been an outstanding servant to the royal studs.