The Queen and her family have always had a love of horses. From the Queen’s sixty-year obsession with breeding racehorses, to the family’s devotion to polo that crosses four generations. So where did the Queen’s love of horses begin? What are the secrets of the Queen’s racehorses? What are the Royal Family’s most famous equine dramas? All the Queen’s Horses, Channel 5 2020
She owns them, studies them, breeds them and races them. ibid.
Dunfermline was bred to compete in the British classics … 4 June 1977 Oaks: three days before the Queen’s Silver Jubilee celebrations. ibid.
More than 1,600 horses owned by the Queen have won races over the last 70 years. ibid.
Horseracing has always given the Queen enormous pleasure. H M Queen: A Remarkable Life, 2002
1921: Britain’s first ever gangland war between two gangs from different cities. Throughout 1921 hundreds of gangsters fight brutal running battles for control over illegal racecourse rackets. Thugs from Birmingham and south London on one side, Italian and Jewish mobs on the other. And at the root of these racecourse wars is a man called Billy Kimber, Britain’s first nationwide gangland kingpin. The Real Peaky Blinders II: The Racecourse Wars, BBC 2022
Just like prohibition of alcohol spurred the rise of organised crime and gangsterism in America, prohibition of gambling will have the same effect here. ibid.
The real money to be made in gambling in the 1910s is at the races themselves. These are the only places where respectable punters can legally go to bet. And where large amounts of cash is changing hands, gather the thieves and the rogues. ibid.
The Birmingham gang gets wind very quickly that Darby Sibini’s going to be coming in to support the Jewish bookmakers. ibid.
The so-called Battle of Epsom propounds the racecourse wars into the limelight. ibid.