King Charles and Queen Camilla visited Newmarket today where they stopped by the National Stud as well as the Jockey Club rooms – and the King gave an insight into his cancer diagnosis and treatment

King Charles has opened up about his cancer diagnosis describing it as “just one of those things”. It came as he and Queen Camilla dropped by the Jockey Club Rooms today in Newmarket, the heart of the horse racing industry, after touring the nearby National Stud.

The couple went on a meet and greet with the public after more than a 1,000 people flocked to the Suffolk town’s centre and the King, who is receiving ongoing cancer treatment, spoke about his health. Lee Harman, 54, from Bury St Edmunds, said: “I asked him how he was, and he said he was feeling a lot better now and that it was ‘just one of those things’.”

King Charles on a visit to Newmarket today (Image: Getty Images)

After telling Charles about his own cancer issues, Mr Harman said: “He asked me how I was and I said ‘I’m all good’, I got the all clear from cancer last year.”

Meanwhile, Charles also admitted he is working on producing a runner for one of the greatest spectacles in the racing calendar – the Derby. Thoroughbreds owned by his mother the late Queen won four out of the five flat racing classics – the 1,000 Guineas and 2,000 Guineas, the Oaks twice and the St Leger – with only the Derby eluding her.

Now it appears the King, who took on Elizabeth II’s stable of horses with his wife, is aiming to have a thoroughbred ready. As he toured the Jockey Club Rooms, a retreat for members and the public, he chatted to his racing manager John Warren, Jockey Club staff and members, and some of the chairs of racecourses run by the club, the official governing body for horseracing in Britain.

Brian Finch, chairman of Epsom Downs Racecourse, home to the world-famous Derby, said after speaking to the King: “We were talking about him getting a Derby runner and he said ‘we’re working on it’. Everybody is hoping the royal family will have a Derby winner soon.”

Charles greets wellwishers during a walkabout in Newmarket (Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Earlier at the National Stud, the royal couple were welcomed by the stud’s chairman Lord Grimthorpe and Anna Kerr, the chief executive.

One of the officials in the line-up praised the King’s French, telling him: “Compliments on your French during the State Visit – fabulous” to which the King jokingly replied: “I don’t know about that. I did a lot of brushing up.”

Next, they met representatives from racing charities and trusts including Jane Buick, an ambassador for Autism in Racing who is working with the National Stud team to develop tours for neuro divergent groups and Oshane Marsh, a graduate from the Riding a Dream academy, who learned to ride at the Ebony Horse Club in Brixton which Camilla supports.

Camilla, wearing a patterned silk dress and a straw fan-shaped clutch bag, told him: “It’s lovely to see a graduate from Ebony. Also gathered to meet them were members of the National Stud’s and British Racing School’s Education teams.

Charles and Queen Camilla meet racehorse Stradivarius during a visit to The National Stud(Image: PA)

The National Stud’s education team runs a programme of full and part-time courses and is the only provider of vocational thoroughbred breeding education in the UK. Around 50 students complete the programmes each year, with an 89 per cent retention rate of graduates working in racing after graduation.

Camilla, who became patron of the British Racing School which is based near Newmarket earlier this year, together with Charles also met Katie Longbottom and Katie Fleming, the author and illustrator of the National Stud storybooks, which are currently in development and aim to encourage young children’s interest in horses from an early age.

The books feature an array of equine characters, including foals, stallions and holidaying racehorses, and their adventures beyond the paddocks. Looking at some of the art work from the books on easels, the King asked Fleming how she produced her work, and heard how she works up paintings from sketches first made on a tablet.

Charles and Camilla view a painting of the late Queen(Image: POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

The King and Queen then watched a parade of the stud’s four resident stallions – Lope Y Fernandez, Bradsell, Rajasinghe and Stradivarius – the latter of which won 18 Group 1 races, often jockeyed by Frankie Dettori.

After his parade, Stradivarius was walked over to Charles and Camilla, who patted him and gave him mints. His handler told them “he loves the cameras”, and Charles asked after his daily routine and whether he was “turned out a lot of the time”. Told he was out for most of the day and then in his stable for “his dinner in the evenings,” Camilla joked: “That’s the good life”.

After their visit to the National Stud, Charles and Camilla travelled to the King Edward VII Memorial Hall on Newmarket High Street for a reception where crowds had gathered as they met members of local community groups, businesses and Mark Ashton, the chairman of Ipswich Town Football Club.

Their final engagement of the morning saw the King and Queen visit the Jockey Club Rooms to meet staff and members of the Club, of which they are joint patrons. Accompanied by Baroness Dido Harding, chair and senior steward of the Jockey Club, British racing’s largest commercial organisation and employer which runs 15 national racecourses including Aintree, Cheltenham and Epsom, and Jim Mullen, the chief executive, they viewed artefacts from Newmarket’s National Horseracing Museum, of which Camilla is also patron.

Charles and Camilla also learned about the launch of The Jockey Club Patrons Scholarship, which is to be delivered in partnership by The National Stud and the British Racing School.

The new initiative will provide access to careers in racing to those from diverse ethnic communities, working with organisations such as The Ebony Horse Club in Brixton, London.