Queen Camilla oozed elegance as she attended Ascot on Saturday, joined by one of her top aides.

The Queen met young people from Ebony Horse Club – a charity horse-riding club, which she called “unique” and a “very special place.

Camilla was appointed president of Ebony Horse Club in 2009, when she was the Duchess of Cornwall.

She was accompanied by Sir Francis Brooke, the King’s representative at Ascot when she first arrived on Saturday afternoon, and people waved and took pictures of her when she walked nearby in the parade ring.

She was also snapped walking alongside Lady Sarah Keswick, one of her companions, who joined her in the royal box.

Lady Sarah Keswick is friends with both the King and the Queen. She is the daughter of former Conservative MP Simon Ramsay, the 16th Earl of Dalhousie, and was married to the late Sir John Chippendale ‘Chips’ Lindley Keswick, who died last year, aged 84.

Camilla looked stunning in a cream cashmere coat dress by Fiona Clare and a hat by Lock & Co.

She presented the prize for the Ebony Horse Club Reynoldstown Novices’ Chase, then she met the students from Ebony Horse Club and posed for a picture with them.

Asked by ITV Racing why Ebony Horse Club was so important, the Queen said: “If you talk to everybody here, I think it’s a unique experience for them.

“I mean, you don’t find many Ebonys all over the world, where do you find (a) riding stable in the middle of a city, teaching all these young people to ride which otherwise, they wouldn’t get the chance.

“So I think it is a unique, and very, very special place.”

Khadijah Mellah, who learned to ride at Ebony Horse Club, became the first British Muslim woman jockey to win a race in 2019.

Asked how important it was that the racing industry supports Ebony and similar organisations, the Queen said it was “hugely important”, adding: “If the racing industry didn’t support all of them, they wouldn’t have a chance to turn out like Khadijah or, you know, be a jockey, or even go and race, you know, work in the racing world. So I think it’s incredibly important.”

Camilla has long had a passion for horses, being a keen rider.

Back in January 2021, during a chat with Charlie Mackesy – author of best-selling book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox And The Horse – Camilla revealed how she spent her childhood doodling horses.

Ebony Horse Club’s aim is to use horses to raise the education, life skills, wellbeing and aspirations of young people from disadvantaged communities within Lambeth.