By Richard Kay

Last updated at 8:12 AM on 8th December 2011

The Queen may well have got a bargain with her purchase of the filly Memory for a reported £500,000 from Highclere Thoroughbred Racing, Europe's leading racehorse ownership company run by the Earl of Carnarvon's debonair brother Harry Herbert.

Memory, who impressed the Queen after winning last year's Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot, bursting through a field of 22 in the final furlong, will be used for breeding at the royal stud at Sandringham.
The filly, part owned by Elizabeth Hurley, was listed to be sold at Tattersall's annual mares' sale last week, but was withdrawn just hours beforehand with the saleroom announcing Memory had been sold 'privately'.

A bargain: Liz Hurley's (left) horse Memory impressed the Queen after winning last year's Albany Stakes at Royal Ascot

It later transpired that the Queen, who rarely buys horses because she prefers breeding her own, was the unexpected purchaser through her racing manager, John Warren. He, of course, is married to Harry's sister, Carolyn.

Despite the economic gloom, it was a bumper year. One leading owner tells me: 'The prices for mares were up 18 per cent on last year.'

This unexpected bonanza, several horses were each sold for more than £1 million, will not have escaped the notice of members of the syndicate that owned Memory.

Fine filly: Memory, pictured, is reported to have been sold for a very impressive profit

The 20 shareholders also include ex-England rugby captain, Lawrence Dallaglio.

The question of whether the horse would have been sold for more at the Newmarket sale has, I am told, become the talk of bloodstock dealers.

'It could perhaps have been fairer to the syndicate to have entered her for the sales with a reserve and then sold her to the Queen if the reserve wasn't met,' one figure tells me.

However, Herbert assures me that all members of the syndicate were thrilled with the amount Memory went for and even more delighted that it was the Queen who bought her.

'The agreed price remains confidential,' he tells me. 'But I can say the syndicate was very happy, especially considering we bought Memory for only around £65,000.'

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