Talking Horses: Eyes could be drawn off-track for this year’s Classics

The Classic generation does not have the racing stage to itself for long, but the few weeks between the Guineas and Derby meetings, when the Newmarket Classics are followed by a fortnight of Epsom trials and the best three-year-olds rise to the top, are as good as it gets for many fans of the Flat.

And this time around, it will not be just the sport’s devotees who sit up and take notice as the springtime cycle starts to turn once again. At Newmarket this weekend and at Epsom in early June in particular, there could be faces in the stands attracting far more attention – and on a global scale – than the horses and riders on the track.

Racing has been counting down the days to the 2022 Derby since the announcement, on the eve of last year’s Classic, that our premier Classic would be an official part of the Queen’s platinum jubilee celebrations, with the monarch “accompanied by members of the Royal family, in attendance”.

A few weeks later, in mid-July, the Queen’s homebred colt Reach For The Moon – with strong form in the Epsom Classics on both sides of his pedigree – got off the mark at the third attempt at Newbury. And five weeks after that, Reach For The Moon came home four lengths clear in the Solario Stakes at Sandown, a race that has been won by a subsequent Derby winner as recently as 2017.

A narrow defeat in the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster was followed by the news that Reach For The Moon had sustained an injury on the gallops that would keep him out until 2022. He remains a general 10-1 shot for the Derby, however, and John Gosden, his trainer, recently reported him on target to go on trial for Epsom in the Dante Stakes at York on 12 May.

During her 70 years as an owner on the British turf the Queen has won four