Queen Elizabeth’s secret visit to exclusive Ellerslie Racecourse bar in 1995: ‘It was something else’

Queen Elizabeth II pictured during her 1995 visit to New Zealand, which reportedly included a secret stop at an exclusive Ellerslie Racecourse bar. Photo / Getty Images

Queen Elizabeth II was known for her love of horses and passion for racing — but what you might not know is that among her visits to New Zealand during her reign, she made a stop at a secret Ellerslie Racecourse bar.

Now as the racecourse prepares for a sold-out crowd of 12,000 at the Karaka Millions this weekend, one staff member has recalled the time the Queen herself paid a visit to the exclusive Winner’s Circle Bar hidden among the stands.

John Finnie has worked with Auckland Thoroughbred Racing and behind the bar at the racecourse for more than 30 years, and remembers the day the monarch came to visit in 1995.

The Queen, pictured here in 1997 at Ellerslie, appeared at the racecourse several times during her visits to New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images

Only the owners, jockeys and trainers of winning horses are allowed inside the Winner’s Circle — and they’re only permitted to stay for 20 minutes before having to make way for the next crowd of winners. But a visit from the Queen herself was, of course, the exception.

“I was one of four staff working in the bar at the time,” Finnie, now in his 70s, tells the Herald.

“It was quite a morning because security came through, I think they had two sweeps with dogs. They’d already been through a few days earlier, and they’d put stickers over any door that was not going to be opened ... so there were stickers all over the place.

“Security is pretty tight around the bar, it’s exclusive, you have to be a winner, but for the visit of the Queen, it was something else. I’ve never seen anything like that.

“We were all screened and searched beforehand and there were minders everywhere. It was just like what you see in the cinema.”

Finnie, who was about 47 at the time, recalls that the Queen may have been wearing a sea green dress and “looked the same as we’d seen her on TV” when she arrived, accompanied by then-prime minister Jim Bolger.

The Queen, who was nearing 70, was “pleasant, quiet but polite” and “sat in the corner and kept to herself”, he says, adding that she was also keeping an eye on the Melbourne Cup on TV.

It was his job to make sure she had anything she needed, but he remembers she wasn’t drinking that day — although she was known to be partial to a martini or glass of champagne at home.

John Finnie, who's worked with Auckland Thoroughbred Racing and behind the bar at Ellerslie Racecourse for more than 30 years, recalls the day the Queen came to visit. Photo / Selena Wright

“She quite often didn’t drink apparently, because if you drink at one place you go to, you’ve got to drink everywhere or they get upset,” he explains.

“If she wanted a drink she’d have asked her aide-de-camp, who would then have asked my boss, and he would have asked me, ‘John, can you do this’, and we’d go back up the chain.”

Finnie says the visit came to mind when he heard the news of the Queen’s death on September 8, 2022.

“I think it was the suddenness that surprised me, because she’d just met the new prime minister,” he says, recalling the Queen’s final engagement with then-British prime minister Liz Truss.

“But when I saw her on TV, I thought, ‘oh, she doesn’t look very good’. She’d just lost a lot of the spark I think she had, and the twinkle in her eyes. But I think she had a good life. I thought back to when she came — I think that was the only time I saw her when she came to New Zealand.”

Queen Elizabeth II, pictured here in 2013, was known for her love of horses and racing. Photo / AP

Finnie, who remembers the Queen’s coronation, has seen three British monarchs during his lifetime — George VI was king when he was born.

King Charles is rumoured to be heading Down Under later this year, but it hasn’t yet been confirmed whether he’ll visit New Zealand or make an appearance at the racecourse.

“I don’t know if he’s as mad on racing as his mother was,” Finnie points out.

The Queen’s appearance at the Winners’ Circle bar was one of several visits to Ellerslie, one of which saw her egged by Treaty of Waitangi protesters in 1986 as she and Prince Philip waved at crowds. The protesters were jailed for assault, but the Queen later said lightheartedly: “I should say that I prefer my New Zealand eggs for breakfast”. The incident didn’t put her off from visiting again — she returned in 1990 for the opening of a new stand.

The upcoming Karaka Millions will take place on January 27 after a $55 million refurbishment, years of Covid-19 delays, and damage from last year’s Auckland Anniversary floods, in the biggest event at the racecourse in four years.

Bethany Reitsma is an Auckland-based journalist covering lifestyle and entertainment stories who joined the Herald in 2019. She specialises in telling Kiwis’ real-life stories, money-saving hacks and anything even remotely related to coffee.