David Hayes ‘honoured’ to receive invitation to attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral
- Australian, who trained Bold Sniper to win two races for the queen, jets out of Hong Kong to London on Thursday night
- The funeral will take place at Westminster Abbey on Monday, and she will be buried in the grounds of Windsor Castle
While early phone calls are fairly standard practice for horse trainers, the one David Hayes received at 5.30am on Tuesday inviting him to the funeral of Queen Elizabeth certainly came as a surprise.
Hayes is among only a handful of non-government Australians invited to the royal funeral, having trained Bold Sniper to win two races in Australia for the queen.
“I was waiting to go out for trackwork and the royal household rang and said they would love Prue [his wife] and I to attend, which was a real surprise and we’re very honoured to go,” Hayes said.
“Some people have been invited by the Australian government but mine was a personal invite from Kensington Palace.”
Hayes and his wife will travel from Hong Kong to London on Thursday night and return as soon as possible after Monday’s funeral, meaning he is likely to miss two or three race meetings.