LONDON // She has several castles and hundreds of millions of pounds in the bank, but Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II looked delighted with her winnings from a horse show – a £50 (Dh 265) supermarket voucher.
Photos published on Friday from the Royal Windsor Horse Show showed a smiling monarch, who has a lifelong passion for horses, clutching a voucher from retailer Tesco.
Her 14-year-old horse, Barber’s Shop, won first prize in its category at the show near the queen’s Windsor Castle residence on Thursday.
The voucher may not be worth much financially to a woman who has a personal fortune of £340 million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
But the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that the queen burst out laughing when she opened the winner's envelope, which included the gift token and another for a jacket from another retailer.
“She usually distributes her winnings to her trainers, jockeys and others with a hand in her success,” the newspaper reported.
Tesco later offered its congratulations, with a spokesman quoted by the Telegraph as saying: "We hope this win provides a little help with the weekly royal shop."
The latest royal accounts show the queen’s household spent £1.3 million on food and drink in 2015 – the equivalent of £25,000 a week.
* Agence France-Presse
