The Royals with Roya and Kate - The Royals at Royal Ascot

Episode Date: June 20, 2024

Royal Ascot plays host to the 'The Roya and Kate Show'. This week, the podcast comes to you live from the edge of the Parade Ring as the Royal Parade ends and the racing begins. Joining Roya and Kate is Donal McCabe, formerly the Communications Secretary for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Jamie Osborne who was reportedly the late Queen Mother's favourite jockey and now trainer, with horses running throughout the festival. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kate, we're here! We are here, Roya, in Berkshire. Not just Berkshire, Kate, we're at Ascot, Royal Ascot. The pinnacle of the podcasting calendar. The pinnacle of the flat racing, Kate, and one of the key events in the British social calendar. And we're here in the Queen Anne enclosure, next to the parade ring,

placed where royalty and race goers almost mingle, and where, for the first time in our short history, we're recording this podcast, following the dress code, and wearing our best frocks and our biggest hats. Rejoice! Hello, Kate. Hello, Roya.

Welcome to the Royals with Roya and Kate from the Times and Sunday Times. And welcome to Royal Ascot, a place where horse racing, fashion and royalty blend to summer days of, well, good-natured fun. This is where town and country come together to dress up and watch the horses and the jockeys and each other as they parade in front of the crowds. We're going to look back at the history and the significance, the trivia and the skills and the determination that make Royal Ascot Royal Ascot. And we have two incredible guests coming to join us. We have two very special guests joining us today. Fanfare, drumroll, fanfare again.

We have the one and only, legendary, Jamie Osbourne, trainer, former jockey, and Donald McCabe, formerly the late Queen's Communications Secretary and racing fiend because he was director of communications at Labricks before that. Welcome to you both. Thank you for joining us. Pleasure. Recollections may vary on whether I was a racing expert ever, I think. Donal's favourite ever deployed phrase, some recollections may vary. We love it.

I remember that very well. We're very lucky to have Jamie because Jamie has got three runners today. Yep, three runners this afternoon. So we are grabbing you in between, well, just before it all kicks off. You're looking very calm. Such an honour to be on this immediately uber successful podcast. We'll pay you later, Jamie. The Royal Kate show

we'll do that again more genuine next time but we're here at the parade ring with owners looking nervously up at the screen to see if they've got a winner. There's a rather important race going on right at this very moment. How's your horse doing? Back of the pack

nowhere. Donal's looking quite dubious Donal's horse is not winning which neatly segues into the fact that the race course takes back to 1711 when queen anne rode out from Windsor Castle and declared the area ideal for horses to gallop at full stretch. Right she was. Yes. It was in 1768 that the first royal meeting was held and since then 12 monarchs have been patrons. Now His Majesty King Charles III has become the 13th monarch overseeing the running of the racecourse.

So this week, every day except for Wednesday, the King's going to start the day's races with the Royal Procession Carriages. Very well turned out liveried staff and the horses are Windsor Greys and Cleveland Bay horses. Did you know that, Gage? Yes, and they were in trooping. They were part of the trooping parade, apparently, Trooping the Colour Parade at the weekend. So it's been like this for some two centuries. And one of the most supportive was the late queen of course who had i believe i'm right in saying 22 winners at royal ascot never missed a single meet i think it was just the last one of her reign she watched from tv at home don't i remember ringing you about that i think the last

time she was here was the saturday in 21 i think yes when you were here i was i was i was i was more on a pleasure than working excursion that day, but I was here. We didn't ring you that day. I think I got told what the Queen was wearing, and you probably had some of my handiwork because I had to pass on that information. Yeah, we need to know the brooches, the outfits. Always my strong point, as you know, Kate. That was her last attendance, and then in 1922, yes, it was television.

Right. So how nice to have been there at the last ASCA that she was at. Yeah, bittersweet, I suppose. Now, we've got Jamie with us, so I think we are perfectly poised to talk all things Royals and racing, because as well as being a trainer, you were a former jockey, and you're famously, royal sources tell me, the Queen Mother's favourite jockey. So let's kick off with that, Jamie. Why do you think you were Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's favourite jockey. So let's kick off with that, Jamie. Why do you think you were Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's favourite jockey?

I'm not sure I was. I've read that too. That's the official line. I've written it, so let's play along. I'm not totally certain that's true. No, I was honoured to ride for the late Queen Mother sort of towards the latter stage of my career. And I don't know where that quote came from, but yes, it is something if you Google it does say that I was her.

Might have come from the Sunday Times. Maybe I made it up. I don't know. What was she like? Because everyone always says she was a real character and had a great sense of humour. She was amazing. Obviously, whenever you put her silks on, there was a real sense of honour. She had a real understanding of the sport.

And I would say, in a way, a kind of almost an admiration for those of us that were doing it, because it's a rather stupid thing to do for a living. But she had a real understanding of what it took. I mean, being here reminds me, there was one amazing day where after she'd had her 400th winner, the late queen gave a lunch here for her to celebrate that fact.

And all the guys that had ridden any of these 400 winners were invited. And, of course, they'd spanned over many decades, so quite a lot of them were dead. How were they represented at lunch? Well, they didn't answer their invitations. I think there were about 25 of us here. And I remember there was one guy that nobody knew who he was. And I remember there was one guy that nobody knew who he was. And it sort of transpired sort of over the opening drinks that he was there by accident.

And the palace office had clearly been trying to track somebody down, but they managed to find somebody with the same name with a similar address I think some somebody went and asked him you know how many winners did you ride for Her Majesty and he went none I've never sat on a horse in my life please tell me he was like six foot six and no no he was a charming elderly gentleman and And all I remember is... I bet she loved that. The Queen Mother thought this was absolutely hilarious and went over to him to apologise for accidentally being invited to the wrong lunch. I mean, as if he's really going to mind.

He just thought he'd won the lottery. He was just being invited for lunch by Her Majesty the Queen to celebrate the Queen Mother's 400th winner. And she went out of her way to make sure that he stayed for lunch and was very much a part of it. And she thought it was absolutely hilarious. Did you give a speech or anything at the lunch? Oh God, it was a long time ago. What were the celebrations like?

It was nearly 30 years ago. What were the celebrations like when they won, though? Did you get special notes from the Queen Mother? Yeah, like... Gifts? Yes. No, gifts. Not gifts.

No. She was just very appreciative and utterly charming. And, you know, you get beaten on a horse for it. She fully understood the game. So she was a good loser as well as a good winner very important in racing not like you're a good loser you get a lot of practice at it well i've seen that on your website it says something like if you're a bad loser or a slow payer don't get in touch or something i tell you what it says on it says overrated jockey underrated trainer no no no that's not that's on my twitter handle but i think on the website it says on. It says overrated jockey, underrated trainer. No, no, no. That's on my Twitter handle. But I think on the website it says, you know, always looking for new business.

But please don't contact me if you are looking for gambling information, a bad payer or what did I say? I actually can't remember. Slow payer or a bad loser. Slow payer, bad loser. But my sources tell me that you are a very good trainer, in fact, so... Well, you're right there, yeah. Yeah, your sources are good.

And that you actually trained one Roya Nika when she was a jockey, which is an incredible feat, Roya, and I'm so impressed that you did this. When you raced in the Magnolia Cup, tell us about what it's like

to be on a horse. Well, first of all, I will what it's like to be on a horse well first of all I will tell you exactly who is responsible for that Donal McCabe is responsible for that because when I was a prank to do the Magnolia car I was in let's just say I was undecided and I and this is a really high profile thing it's for charity at Goodwood's at Goodwood. Yeah. This is huge. You have to get incredibly fit. You have to learn how to ride racehorses,

which as Jamie will come on to, I found quite challenging. And I went and had lunch with Donal as he was about to leave Buckingham Palace. We were all weeping. And I said I had been approached to do it and I wasn't sure. It was way out of my comfort zone. Not really sure.

Not sure I should do that. And Donal said, over a second glass of champagne maybe, Well, possibly. Imagine to do it he said imagine the flash of the silks as you go past the post imagine you know imagine what an adventure that will be so i blame you for everything that followed afterwards but actually it was one of the best experiences of my life i loved it and it was quite a lot of hard work as the trainer will tell you because i literally was clueless. I thought I knew horses. I really didn't when I arrived at Jamie's.

So what do you have to do to get the jockey fit, to become a jockey? Well, I've trained a few girls for this race and they all come in at different starting points. I came in at minus minus. I would have to say that I've never had anybody that has worked as hard and tried as hard as Roya. The first few weeks, I really thought we were going to fail. But thankfully, Roya started in good time. So we had enough time to mould her. And now, Roya, I would say, is a very proficient rider of a racehorse.

From being a fairly moderate one to start with. Fairly moderate in Jamie language means crap. I wasn't allowed to swear on the Kate and Roya show, but you are. No, Roya worked very, very hard and we planned it very carefully. But sadly, she did actually make a huge cock up on the day. And I feel like we've got a bit of unfinished business. Because I think Roya should ride in another charity race. And this time, we won't get it wrong.

Because she deserves to win one of these. Because actually, nobody has worked harder than Roya. It's a huge amount of gym work. That's the only nice thing Jamie's ever said in the year and a half I've known him. Anyway, back to the Queen Mother. Because my sources tell me she used to occasionally just ring you up just for a gossip jamie what were those i can't remember what do we say i don't recall yeah i don't recall i have no recollection that's it i have no recollection who was it that said that well don't know you were you worked for the late Queen for quite a few years. You shared a strong interest in racing because you did join the palace from Lambrooks. I did, yes.

Tell us what it was like working for someone who had such a strong interest in horses and racing. Well, I soon knew that my level of knowledge was, shall we say, minuscule compared to Her Majesty's. So I didn't try to trade on it at all. Isn't that quite a fun anecdote about your first interview with her. Yeah I was just gonna say I'd been offered the role but before you before you sort of formally offered it you go along to meet Her Majesty as was and I went to Sandringham and I was taken up by the private secretary Did you see the giant sculpture of Estimates? Yes I did see that somewhere yeah and I went up and I had a brief chat with Her Majesty she asked me some, no not questions but just sort of I think just to check the cut of my jib really and then at the end of that I it was clear

that the conversation was over so I sort of backed away while the private secretary... How do you know, Donal, when the conversation's over with the late queen? You just know. The late queen has had millions of conversations away. She's an expert at letting you know the conversation is over. So you're backing out of the room. So I sort of discreetly stepped back while the private secretary went just to explain a few things, a conversation about work.

And all there was in the room were lots of portraits of horses. So, I mean, I'm naturally a nosy person so I thought I'd just start looking at some of these and then sort of unbeknown to me the Queen had just sort of sidled up to me and said, oh that's of Boreal at the Derby just before he goes out, which was the first time she had a runner in the Derby in 1954. Sadly, he came second, but a Royal Ascot winner. And so we just chatted about the picture. And you got in there because of the horses.

I've got this job in the bag now. No, I think... Nailed it. Even after three and a half years doing it, I always thought I didn't have the job in the bag at all. But it was a lovely moment. I think it's just I was interested. I knew a little bit about racing,

enough to know that it was the parade ring and that the jockey was being given instructions before the race. So I always found whenever I saw the late queen on engagements with horses, she came to the House of Cavalry once with the now king, and I saw her at a couple of other horsey engagements she always looked it was she smiled solidly for an hour she looked at her happiest around horses yeah we for the Platinum Jubilee we we released some footage from the Royal Stud of her with John Warren looking at some some of the yearlings I think they'll have been so

forgive me I've got that wrong and you could just see that she was completely happy a lady in her late 90s but just at one with the horses and is it right that the racing post was the first thing that she used to read there's all these stories about the racing post having brought to her on a silver platter I refuse to do marketing for the racing post much as I love them by saying I think it fair to say that that the Queen's knowledge of racing was because she absorbed it from many sources, including television and the Racing Post, certainly. So we were chatting the other day, Jamie, and you were asking me about how much you thought we, whether or not the King and Queen were going to come every day. You were very pleased to hear that they would.

And you said racing needs them. Why does racing need the royal patronage why is that important well i'm sure racing would survive without them but you know we just become another nation like everywhere else and i think we've got a lot of unique selling points in this country but a huge one is the royal family's involvement you know some of the nations we're competing against don't even have a royal family let alone one that's involved in the sport so um they're a big draw if you look you know so there's a huge international crowd here i've got clients over from all parts of the world and one of the reasons they come isn't just the horses it's the whole sense of uh of the whole atmosphere here the fact

that you know we can stand here and His Majesty is standing there. And it all seems like we're sharing one passion. And I think that is what really this country has that other countries don't have. And internationally, I'm pretty sure that our industry would suffer if the Royal Family were not involved. I was speaking last week to John Moran, the racing advisor to the Majesties, and he was saying that, I mean, he was delighted that the King and Queen

have shown so much enthusiasm for it in the last year or so, but he was also saying that this week is a very important time for the King behind the scenes to meet a lot of people from around the world in racing and make those connections, and that's sort of important for the racing industry going forwards. So what sort of meetings will they be having while they're here, the Royal Family? You know, we talked about the social elements to them, but first question for both of you, will they be meeting with the owners, other owners?

Well, I've never been invited to the Royal Box here, so I have no idea what's going on. We'll have a word, Jamie. Well, we're in the same boot. And does that relationship continue with the late Queen and the King and Queen, you know, with you and your training? Well, no, I sadly don't train for any and the king and queen that you know with you and your training and well no i sadly don't train for any of the family and never have i only rode for the late queen mother um but you know remember here today there will be you know leaders of countries here um and i'm sure you know some of them will have their own boxes up there, but I'm sure there will be all sorts of communication going on

between His Majesty and various other heads of state. The soft diplomacy continues in Alaska. Yeah, well, and when you can do that over a shared passion of this sport, it kind of softens things up a bit, doesn't it? What is it about racing you think that the Royal Family are so passionate about? Why has there been this extraordinary connection for centuries? Well, it's a sport of kings and queens.

And queens. Yes. And queens. I was getting there. Not for the first time my sentence has been finished. No, I think it is the sport of kings and queens. You know, you can imagine some people saying, oh, it's out of touch. But racing is an incredibly popular sport.

I mean, even from my time when I worked for Labrador, this is like the most popular, not participation sport, but sort of followed sport, you know, followed by all sectors of society. So I think with the Royals being involved, it's very much, they've got an interest like everybody else. They are human. They just happen to be able to own horses or get horses, shall we say, you know, from working with the overseas people that, as Jamie says, where the cachet of them being involved attracts people into the country and soft diplomacy certainly takes place. But any, you know, it slices through any society divides or any political divides. You know, you see here, you know, you've got

horses owned by some of the richest people in the world, owned by monarchs, owned by rulers, and you've got horses owned by a guy who has a corner shop you know and and what brings those people together is this sport and it has and it doesn't this sport doesn't judge anybody it's very accepting and where people share their passion they don't care where they came from they don't care who they are you know racing will just overrule all of that that's really interesting because some some people might think it's quite elitist because you've got all the top it's not elitist at all it's the most you've got everybody who can put a bet on whether

it's you know someone in the bookies or can watch it on the channel there are barriers to entry there are barriers to entry and the main barrier to entry is it's not cheap the 1220 train from waterloo to Ascot today was life's rich tapestry. Well I tell you what, wait until the train backs because you're going to see it all happening there after they've had a few drinks. So many congratulations to the Ruling Motors. Tell me about the silks. We know last year we had the king's silks. The jockeys will wear the silk of that monarch. How are those silks chosen?

Who picks the colours? Because, you know, as a kind of gambling kind of idiot, I don't know anything about it. I pick all the horses according to what colour the jockey's wearing, frankly. So how do the monarch's silks get chosen? I don't know how they're originally chosen, but they've been historical for an awful long time. So basically the jockey wears the silks of the owner.

So does the king choose which colour he's going to have? No, the king has his set of colours, which he inherited from a majesty. And they are probably the most famous colours in the world. Whenever a jockey puts them on, and they are probably the most famous colours in the world. Whenever a jockey puts them on, I'm sure they get a huge sense of pride and they are probably the best-known colours in the world and I don't know, you can maybe answer this,

how long they have been the royal colours. I would imagine a couple of hundred years. So when you used to ride for the Queen Mother, Jamie, and not to disparage any of the other owners you used to ride for, but was there a little extra when you got into the Queen Mother silks? That sounds wrong, actually. A little extra? When you used to put on the Queen Mother silks,

you're like, yes, I'm riding for a royal owner. That's an extra bit of cachet as a jockey. Hers and Bo Derek's, yeah. They were the ones. No, of course they did. So casual. Of course they did. It was an honour, I've said that. It was an honour and it was something that, you know, I'd grown up watching racing and watching the Queen Mother's horses winning a lot of races, never dreaming that one day I would ride a horse wearing them. How did you first come to ride for her?

How come she picked you? She didn't. Because you were sort of half okay? Some trainer decided that I should ride a horse. I don't think, you know, I'm not sure. You know, she would have been the model owner. She wouldn't have had, she wouldn't have interfered too much. You know, the trainers would have been allowed to run the operation.

You know, the trainers would have been allowed to run the operation, but she had an understanding, and she only had horses with people that she fully trusted, that they would make the right decisions and do the right jobs. How many winners did you ride, then? Not many. I was only at the end. I was like the dregs of the last bits of the 400, you know? You did win the Welsh Grand National, though. I didn't.

Yes, you did. What relevance does that have to a majesty? It's quite a big race. You're doing yourself down, Jamie. I won a lot bigger races than that, Roy. Just come on. Do your own work. We've already got all the Cheltenham winners in the intro.

All right, okay. What goes through your mind when you're ready to go? I can't imagine. It just looks scary beyond belief. What is the mindset when you're just about to go? You're there you're waiting Well, that's what probably why it's a young man's sport because you know the thing that has to you know Being a jump jockey is quite dangerous

You are going to get hurt You hope you're not going to get permanently hurt, but some have, some do. The overriding will to win, the fear of failure has to be the dominant emotion. And I think people give up the sport when the fear of getting hurt overrides that. And I think if you ever get down to the start on a horse

and the fear of getting hurt, the fear of hitting the ground and coming back in the ambulance becomes too strong, well, that's when you really should be giving up. So, yeah, you have to just get yourself into the right frame of mind to do it. But it's like any sportsman. The elite sportsmen in any sport are just slightly different you know they have almost like an obsessive like they'd rather die than get beaten and if you don't have that you won't make it yeah in any sport and you know probably to some degree

is what differentiates between the people who nearly make it. Ability is probably less of an impact on that than mentality. That's what Olympians say. That's really interesting. Is it? Oh, well, good. Maybe I heard one of them say it one day. Sadly, I might have the mental capacity, but the physical talent for any sport is beyond me. I do think it's something for your mental game for your next race. My next race? It's clearly what your trainer is telling you. Can you do it with a GoPro and then we can put it on the YouTube?

Well, I tell you what, Jamie's right on that in terms of the injuries because I did have quite a bad fall in February. You did. She flopped off and broke a tooth. Were you there when it happened? No, it was reported to me, though. It wasn't Royer's most impressive bit of riding. Flopped off's that's one

sympathy you get no sympathy but um no i'm i'm i'm channel i'm channeling the mental game don't laugh i'm gonna do another race i'll do another race if jamie if jamie can steer me in the right direction i'll do it i i would be delighted to train you for another race all right it's on record it's on record. It's on record. Which one? Which one should I go for? I don't know, we'll find one. We'll find a charity race that we'll get you into

and I think I need to prep you a bit better this time. We did a lot of work, but we were incomplete in the end because you completely cocked up the start. Yes, as you've said. To me, every time I've ever been to Lambourne over the last year, you've reminded me, Jamie. Never to be forgotten. I wish I'd met Jamie about three years ago.

I could have channeled my inner Jamie. We're dealing with you sometimes. I'm really regretting this. Honestly, every time I go to Lambourne, I get sort of mildly abused. Oh, dear. The racing world. The hard knocks. There you go.

As a trainer, Jamie,ie here apart from winning races what's what are the objectives is it lots of schmoozing is it um yeah look this is a big week for us every year you know a fair few international clients some of them i don't see from one ascot to the next so it's a chance to catch up um It's a kind of aspirational week. You know, it can really, you know, it bites people's attention. It gets their attention. And obviously, I need to keep my stables full. And I need to increase my spending power annually

so that we can potentially buy a better class of animal that can come here and really compete And how much is that? How much does a horse like that cost? Classified There are horses here that cost 10,000 quid and there are horses here that have cost

10 million and you know the Qataris have come in and spent an awful lot of money this year, I think they've got 28 runners. That's the emir of Qatar, Wassanan Racing, and it'll be very interesting to see how they get on. They've obviously got the deepest pockets in the world, and they're coming here to try and get a winner,

but they're going to need 28 shots at it. It just shows how hard this game is. We're bringing horses here that realistically, if you think of it in terms of a European football championship, we're not even in the box. I mean, you know, there's no penalty kicks. Some of these are being shot from outside of the box and a couple of them being shot from our own half. You know, we really, we need a lot of luck this week. We're coming here with relatively cheap animals. Most of them are other people's car stops.

And we're going to try, we're trying to punch above our way. And like the royal family, as we've been discussing, the heritage and the late queen mother and the queen and king, it's a family affair for you because your daughter Safi is one of the rising stars of flat racing. Sadly, it is now a family affair. Yeah, I mean, it was just my domain for many years. We're talking, of course, about Safi is one of the rising stars of flat racing. Sadly it is now a family affair yeah I mean it was just my domain for many years. We're talking of course about Safi Osbourne. Yeah yeah I have three very nice children and I've got a girl who is the youngest obviously and was the only one

or she won the genetic lottery in the first place because believe it or not the boys are six foot three, six foot two and six foot one and she's five foot two so i mean where did that come from you know um so she was the right shape uh to to do this job right size she's also very good jamie yeah she had a passion for it from the boys were never interested the boys went through a brief spell of liking racing in their teens when they used to come with me a little bit and they thought that it was about drinking, gambling and girls. When they realized there was actually a little bit more to it than that they soon lost interest but Safi has stuck with it

she's been a sponge for the whole thing since she was tiny weenie. How old is she now? She's 22. Who's gonna end up being the better jockey? Osborne Senior or Osborne Junior? Oh, listen, it'd be great if it was her, but she's got a long way to go. Modest as ever. And Donald, from the punter's point of view, what should we be looking out for today? If you've never watched racing before and you're interested in Royal Ascots.

Just enjoy it. To Jamie's point about whether it's football or the European Championship, this is almost the highest level of the sport that you're going to get. And you are going to see some amazing athletes. You're going to see some of them get beaten. You're going to see some of them win. You're going to see some names that in the

flat racing firmament will live long in the memory, but maybe not to the people because they only tend to race for two or three years and you'll see you could see a genuine superstar today and that's the beauty of coming to something like Royal Ascot you're getting the very best it's like going to the 100 meter final at the Olympics is how I would describe it. And we've got the King Charles III stakes this year any other differences you think that the King's going to bring in Jamie?

We are just very grateful that he's here and Her Majesty is here and the family are here because they do bring so much to the meeting and our industry really benefits from their involvement so there was a fear, there was a fear and I voiced this to Roya once or twice that they would could potentially not be as involved as the late Queen. And now it looks like that isn't the case and their future in the sport looks secure, which is fantastic for us. It means an awful lot to the industry and therefore to the economy. And we are grateful as a sport that they are still very much involved. Casting ahead, you do wonder whether King William will be quite so involved.

He's never been a huge fan of racing. His preferred pony seems to be a kind of polo pony. What about Harry? Would he? Oh, no, no. Donal's looking pained. Sorry, I didn't hear that. But you know Zara. Zara would be amazing for the sport.

Potential for Anne and Zara to take it on, do you think? Oh, Zara would be fantastic. And she really, you know, she understands the game. At the end of the day, look, God, she's been to Olympics eventing. She's a brilliant, brilliant horsewoman. She gets this sport. She's been around it all her life. You know, the Princess Royal gets this sport.

I mean, the Princess Royal gets this sport. I mean, the two of them, I mean, I always thought that maybe if His Majesty didn't pick up the battle,

maybe they would. But thankfully, you know, that hasn't been necessary. But yeah, Zara would be fantastic. She is fantastic for the sport.

She does an awful lot for Cheltenham. I'd like to see her flat racing a little bit more. She'll be here this week, I think, at least a few times. Well,

what a week it's been already. Hasn't it just been the week? All those winners for Jamie. We'll cut that bit if he doesn't win. We've had Trooping, we've had Princess of Wales

return, albeit perhaps briefly to their royal story. We've had the King and Queen albeit perhaps briefly to their royal story. We've had the King and Queen at Ascot almost every day. The King here almost every day except one. The Queen here every day. We've got a day in the glorious sunshine at Windsor, now Ascot. Next week we're looking ahead to the Inward State visit from the Japanese Emperor and

Empress. Pumped for the Japan State visit. It's all happening. The sun is shining. Donal, are you feeling like the royals are back? It's been a rocky old time. You were there for some of the rock state visit. It's all happening. The sun is shining. Donal, are you feeling like the Royals are back? It's been a rocky old time. You were there for some of the rockiest times. Does it feel a little bit more...

I don't think they ever went away. I think when we are in the bubble, we can all look at things too closely. I think that they've never gone away. I think they're an incredibly stable institution that is incredibly popular and does one of the few things that binds quite a diverse country, as we are culturally in many ways, binds us together.

I think it's never went away. It's one of the joys of working for them. Jamie's putting his hat back on. Jamie, final thought, final wrap thoughts. Is it Saturday? And I carried mine off with such a plumb. Sorry.

Oh Jamie, say something. What a great week. Racing industry is so grateful to the Royal family for their involvement this week

and let's look forward to next year. We are very grateful to you both. We are very grateful to you both. Donal McCabe and Jamie Osborne

thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you very grateful to you both Donal McCabe and Jamie Osborne thank you so much for joining us thank you thank you very much it's still Tuesday