You did not need to be an ardent monarchist to feel that the highlight of Royal Ascot this year came on the final afternoon, when the Queen won the Chesham Stakes with Free Agent. The roar of the crowd and the transparent excitement of the owner were reminders of how rare such royal winners had become at this level.

Richard Hannon, who trains the colt, became unusually emotional in the aftermath but still managed to joke that he gets through to the Queen by telephone rather faster than the Prime Minister. Hannon has never won a Derby and is not renowned for middle-distance horses. Free Agent might just break the mould.

Last Friday, at Newmarket, the Queen was not present to see her colours carried to another auspicious juvenile victory.

It was only a maiden that Golden Stream won but she broke the track record for two-year-olds in the process and so animated her jockey, Ryan Moore, that classic targets were inevitably raised. While Sir Michael Stoute, the trainer, was his usual inscrutable self, John Warren, the Queen's racing advisor, did not disguise his enthusiasm for the filly.

“She's a finer version of her full sister, Flight Of Fancy,” he said. “And she was second in the Oaks.”

So is it now possible that the Queen has credible candidates for both the Derby and the Oaks next year?

And, if so, will the new grandstand due to be unveiled at Epsom in the spring be big enough to cope with the patriotic fervour?

There has never been a royal winner of the Derby, the closest being the second place of Aureole, five days after the Queen's coronation in 1953. The Oaks was won with Dunfermline in 1977, and the St Leger for good measure, but Her Majesty missed both occasions. She was busy with Jubilee arrangements on Oaks day and entertaining the Prime Minister, James Callaghan, when the Leger was run.

Hopefully, two days at Epsom next June are inked into the royal engagement book. We should know more about the prospects of classic glory after Ascot's fixture on September 27, when Free Agent is to contest the Royal Lodge Stakes and Golden Stream the Fillies' Mile.