LONDON: The late Queen Elizabeth and King Charles earned approximately £2 million from the sale of horses they received as gifts from notable people.
A Saudi royal, a Dubai sheikh, and a Muslim religious leader were all said to have given the queen more than 40 horses, according to The Guardian.
The queen, a great enthusiast for raising and racing thoroughbreds, sold some horses for profit. The monarch, who recently began selling some of the horses he inherited from his mother, which are thought to be worth at least £27 million, has auctioned off others.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the emir of Dubai and PM of the United Arab Emirates, is by far the queen’s most benevolent racing and breeding stock supplier. At least 34 horses presented to the royals appear to have come from him.
The royal family appears to have received five horses from the Aga Khan, Prince Shah Karim al-Husseini, the spiritual leader of Shia Ismailis, including Estimate, who earned the queen one of her most cherished victories on the track in the 2013 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot.
The queen also got a horse from the Qatari al-Thani family’s breeding farm and another from the Denford Stud, run by Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia, the crown prince’s half-brother.
According to a Guardian study, Elizabeth received 41 horses that competed in races during the past 15 years while racing under the royal colours. Over the past ten years, 29 of them were put up for auction in public and brought in a total of £1.93 million.
Buckingham Palace says the horses presented to the queen are considered private gifts. Private presents given to Queen Elizabeth by persons who had a close relationship with her late majesty would stay private, according to a spokeswoman.
They claimed that the monarchy’s gift-giving policy “makes quite plain that gifts are classified as personal when given by someone the member of the royal family knows privately and not during, or in connection with, any official function or event.”
Whether the policy is sufficiently clear to deal with situations when the relationship between the Windsors and their benefactors needs to be more evident is raised by the donations of horses to the queen. The queen had formal interactions and a shared interest in horse racing, which led to connections with Sheikh Mohammed and the Aga Khan that might be considered official and personal.
