Queen cancels visit to the races

The Queen is suffering from a strained muscle in her back

The Queen has cancelled an afternoon at the races because of a bad back, Buckingham Palace has said.

The 80-year-old monarch had planned to attend the races at Newmarket. She will still be attending a lunch given by the Stewards at the Jockey Club.

The Queen had to pull out of a trip to Arsenal's football stadium on Thursday after doctors advised her to cut back on her busy schedule.

She strained a muscle in her back while holidaying at Balmoral in the summer.

Doctors are taking it on a day-by-day basis Buckingham Palace spokeswoman

The Suffolk racecourse had planned to celebrate the Queen's 80th birthday with races named after horses owned by the monarch.

Although she will miss the racing, she will be spending two hours at the birthday lunch.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: "The Queen is going to attend lunch at the Jockey Club in Newmarket but she's not going to the races.

"There will be no standing around. Doctors are taking it on a day-by-day basis."

Racing fan

The Queen, who is a keen horse racing fan and reads the Racing Post every morning, was to have been accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh.

The Duke stood in for his wife at Arsenal's new multimillion-pound Emirates Stadium on Thursday, telling staff and players that she was "very disappointed" not to be there.

She has been told to scale down her schedule by doctors after returning from her first trip to the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia last week.

Managing director of Newmarket Racecourses, Lisa Hancock, said staff were disappointed the Queen would not be attending the racing but wished her a "speedy recovery".