IT has been a sad time for The Queen with the death of her husband Prince Philip. But horse racing has given her a bit of light in a dark time.

And she has a live Royal Ascot contender in Tactical who won at Newmarket earlier this week. Check out the latest Royal Ascot free bets offers and start planning your ante-post portfolio now if you haven’t already.

Tactical won last year’s July Stakes and won the Free Handicap back at Newmarket, beating the favourite Naval Crown. The Queen’s Racing Manager, John Warren, said: “Andrew Balding and I had been discussing with the Queen whether or not we should experiment today what his trip is going to be.

“Having won over five and six furlongs last year this was to see if he was going to be a Jersey Stakes horse, a St James’s Palace horse or a Commonwealth Cup candidate for Royal Ascot.

“He’s proven today that seven furlongs is no problem for him so I think it’s now all roads to Royal Ascot for the Jersey.”

Prince Philip, who died at the age of 99, was always at the Queen’s side at the Derby and Royal Ascot for seven decades.

Although never an active participant in the sport, he was also a Jockey Club member and had three different races at Ascot named after him. He also owned a Greyhound Derby winner.

Royal Ascot is still waiting to hear whether its crowd will be capped at 4,000 or 10,000. Tickets are not yet open to be purchased, with punters only able to register their interest.

The course has previously confirmed it will not be changing from their original date of 15 June.