A DEVOTEE of flat racing throughout her reign, the Queen celebrated her first victory over the jumps for 53 years yesterday when First Love obliged in the drizzly, heavy conditions of Folkestone, a perfectly decent racecourse but somewhat lacking the class of Royal Ascot.

To its owner’s undoubted delight, First Love put up such an exuberant front-running display in the novice chase that he may be rewarded with an appearance at this spring’s Cheltenham Festival.

The Queen’s last winner over fences was Monaveen in October 1949, when she was still Princess Elizabeth. She owned the horse jointly with her mother and was distraught when it had to be destroyed the following year after breaking a leg at Hurst Park.

She has not taken a serious interest in the jumps since, diverting her attention to the flat, which she regarded as the far less dangerous.

But her resolve weakened last year on the death of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and she decided to honour her mother’s memory and the affection with which she was held in National Hunt circles by breaking with tradition and racing her best young jumpers in the sovereign’s colours.

Nicky Henderson, First Love’s trainer, had been mortified by the horse’s defeat in his first two steeplechases, and decided to try him over a longer distance.

“We always thought the world of this horse,” he said. “Yesterday was a bit of an experiment, and we were certainly going to find out about his stamina because he didn’t hang about.”

First Love was the first winner over the jumps in the sovereign’s colours of purple, gold braid, scarlet sleeves and black velvet cap since Ambush II gave Edward VII his third Grand National winner in 1900.

The Queen stayed at home and watched the race on television, perhaps also musing that, despite having won all the other English flat-racing classics, the ultimate prize of the Derby still eludes her.

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