The Queen's side hustle that earns her $14 million
The Queen has earned millions of pounds from horse racing over the past 31 years, it has been calculated.
According to myracing.com, the 93-year-old’s lucrative pastime has earned her £7,768,448 – or approximately NZ$15 million – in prize money since 1988.
As a racehorse owner, the Queen has netted 534 wins in 3,205 runs, with an average of nine wins per year. Her highest-earning horse so far is Carlton House, who brought in £772,815.
Matthew Newman, myracing.com’s racing expert, said the monarch has a real passion for horse racing.
“She does it for fun, 100 per cent,” he said.
“Her genuine love of the horses is not in question – one look at her face when her horse begins a run or gets to challenge will tell you all you need to know.”
The Queen’s racing adviser John Warren said she “would have made a wonderful trainer” if she was not the reigning British monarch.
“She has such an affinity with horses and is so perceptive,” he told The Telegraph in a 2008 interview.
Warren also said the Queen does not mull over losses in the field.
“Her Majesty lets fate take its course and accepts what happens. When it comes to horses, she always looks forward and never dwells on the past. She is never melancholy.”
This side activity added to the royal’s personal wealth, which Forbes estimated to be at US$530 million or $814 million in New Zealand dollars.
The Queen also gains her income from the government’s Sovereign Grant, the Duchy of Lancaster estate, and her personal assets and investments such as the Sandringham Estate in England’s east.