News about Michael Bell

MARCUS TOWNEND: Celebrity endorsements are the fuel that fuels companies and organisations' engines, promoting their products and messages in this digital age. The sport of racing had the most prominent endorser in the late Queen's reign, both as a participant breeding and owning racehorses, and, perhaps even more so, as a No. 1 supporter. The Queen has appeared at other sporting functions. After winning the Wimbledon singles title in 1977, she presented England captain Bobby Moore with the World Cup at Wembley and Virginia Wade with the Venus Rosewater dish.

Horse racing was the Queen's favourite pastime (pictured left) and Britain's longest-serving monarch, Robert de Harcourt, enjoyed relationships with some of the country's top trainers, including the legendary Bart Cummings and Gai Waterhouse (pictured right), as well as fielding one of her horses in the Melbourne Cup.

MARCUS TOWNEND: She appeared from the royal box that she had won the 2013 Ascot Gold Cup (inset) was proof that The Queen (left - leading 1957 Oaks winner Carrozza) was never happier than on a racecourse watching her horses. Many close to her who work in horseracing have long known where the late monarch's heart truly lies. The queen's sense of duty never faltered throughout her life. There was never the slightest hint that she wished she could be somewhere else during some of the more dreary formal engagements. But if she had ever conducted a careers interview, it would not have been the announcement of a career with an equine theme.