It isn’t difficult to tell the difference between Royal Ascot and the Kentucky Derby, although behaviour in the Silver Ring at the former these days is beginning to blur the distinction.

At one they play the National Anthem, at the other the entire crowd belts out My Old Kentucky Home, ending with a sky-rending cheer. One has grass, the other dirt. One has a dress code of sorts, the other is a sartorial free-for-all. At the Berkshire meet they drink overpriced champagne; at Louisville the rank profiteering is by the itinerant vendors, trays around their necks like old-style cinema usherettes, doing big business in mint juleps at $9 (£4.50) a shot.

In the warmth of an English June you are unlikely to encounter a middle-aged man in pale blue seersucker saying to his red-trouser-suited wife: “You wanna snack, honey, you just go right ahead and holler.” To which honey’s instant response is a painful dilemma between a six-inch gourmet pretzel and a flame-grilled burger the size of a small cartwheel.

But the defining characteristic of Churchill Downs Race-course in Louisville is that it has no royal enclosure and certainly no royal box. When the Queen fulfilled the ambition of a lifetime on Saturday to watch the 133rd Kentucky Derby, the best known race in America, she found herself sharing her patch of balcony , known as Millionaire Row, with Ivana Trump, the President of Latvia and a well-dressed but unknown woman who had to be restrained by detectives from taking close-up pictures of the visiting monarch.

The Queen’s Praetorian Guard against a press of Dlist celebrities were William Farish, the former US Ambassador to London, and his wife Sarah, with whom she stayed over the weekend at their 1,800-acre farm and stud at Lexington. She has stayed with them privately four times before; royal and Farish horses interbreed regularly.

The Queen appeared interested in the race, but not unduly animated; she did not have one of her own horses running and it did not look as if she had visited a “wagering window”, which is what they call their version of the Tote. She watched a whisker over two minutes of heart-stopping excitement. Street Sense, the 9-2 favourite that was trailing 19th at the half-mile, stormed down the rails to win by 2½ lengths, netting his owner, a retired Chicago magazine publisher, a prize of $3 million (£1.5 million), which roughly equates to the purse for that other, older, derby in Surrey.

As Street Sense passed the winning post below her, the Queen consulted the programme held for her by the Duke of Edinburgh and pointed to the winning horse, locally trained, as have been 100 of the past 133 Derby winners. The last time a British horse made any showing at all was in 1986 when Bold Arrangement came second.

When the royal party first appeared on the balcony Mrs Farish offered binoculars but the Queen declined. This may have been just as well, as she might then have seen the infield. This is the area in the centre of the oval track that hosts an annual bacchanalia of drink, drugs and other riotous behaviour, but from where it is all but impossible to see the race because of the thick forest of beer and hot-dog marquees.

The Timesventured in before the big race, struggling to make progress through an obstacle course of beer bellies. “This ain’t about racing over here,” one man, wearing more tattoos than clothes, said. “This is about drinking beer.” It was said with great affability, even courtesy. It is another difference between Kentucky and Ascot; no one, not even the course stewards and the policemen, are anything but polite and helpful. Even the drunks don’t, on the whole, cause offence.

A royal visit to a thoroughly republican and egalitarian race meeting was the cause of much desire to catch a glimpse of a hereditary monarch, who did wonders for attendance figures. On Saturday 156,635 customers passed through the turnstiles, the third highest attendance.

The Queen may have been feeling a little glum at her lack of success on the turf recently. As monarch she ought to have won the Epsom Derby, but she never has. The last time she won a classic was in her Silver Jubilee year of 1977, when her horse Dunfermline carried off both the Oaks and the St Leger. Last year she came a poor 70th in the league table of British flat racing owners, with prize money of a mere £55,702 from 11 wins out of 93 entries.

The Kentucky Derby is, frankly, not a win that would suit the Queen. Would she really want to boast that one of her horses had won a race sponsored by Yum! Brands, parent company of Kentucky’s best known fast food? But hey, Ma’am, wouldn’t that just be finger-lickin’ good?

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• A vicar’s wife: ‘There is no one to fight for us’
• Every little helps at the supermarket
• Ugg or Fitflop? The battle of the boots