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Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, normally in robust health even at the age of 80, scrapped a day at the races Friday, 24 hours after making a rare withdrawal from a planned engagement because of a bad back.
The sovereign, known for her love of racing, withdrew from an afternoon at Newmarket racecourse in eastern England on doctor's orders because of a strained muscle in her back. But she will still spend about two hours at the famous venue.
"The queen is going to attend lunch at the Jockey Club in Newmarket, but she's not going to the races," said a spokeswoman from her official London residence Buckingham Palace.
"There will be no standing around. Doctors are taking it on a day-by-day basis."
The queen had to pull out of opening the new Emirates stadium of English Premiership football club Arsenal in north London on Thursday because of her injury, her 85-year-old husband Prince Philip deputising.
She strained her back while holidaying on her Balmoral estate in Scotland during the summer.
She is renowned for her stamina and unwavering sense of duty but has been ordered to reduce her busy schedule to help her back recover.
It is highly unusual for the stoical monarch to slow down on her schedule or withdraw from events.
Buckingham Palace has been gradually reducing the pace of the queen's hectic workload -- though she still carries out hundreds of engagements a year alongside her official duties.
The sovereign carried out 378 engagements last year compared with 509 in 1996.
The queen flew back last week to Britain after her first ever trip to the Baltic states -- touring Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in a whirlwind four-and-a-half day visit.
She held her scheduled audiences with the ambassadors of Namibia and Belgium at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday but doctors ruled against the trip to the Emirates Stadium.
Earlier this month, the queen was in Belfast to review British soldiers stationed in Northern Ireland, despite suffering from a bloodshot eye.
She came to the throne in 1952, it was not until July 1982 that she was first admitted to hospital, to have a wisdom tooth removed.
Last year she cancelled three engagements because of a cold and sore throat, while in 2003 she had keyhole surgery after suffering a torn cartilage walking on rough ground.
That led to a reduced schedule as she convalesced from the successful 45-minute operation. Further surgery on her left knee later the same year was combined with a procedure to remove minor growths from her face.
She was forced to cancel several engagements in 1993 because of flu while in 1994 she broke her left wrist when her horse tripped during a ride on her Sandringham country estate in eastern England.
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AFP 271105 GMT 10 06
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