LONDON – Don’t call her at the office today – Queen Elizabeth II will be off to the races.

The horse-obsessed queen plans to kick off her Diamond Jubilee celebrations by attending the Epsom Derby. As one of her favorite events on Britain’s horse-racing calendar, it marks a fitting place for the start of the four-day national celebration of her 60 years on the throne.

In a life filled with duty and public engagements, and with a family that has often been troubled, diversion in the gilded life of Queen Elizabeth II often comes on four hooves. It is possible that no other event on the crowded Jubilee schedule will give the aging monarch so much pleasure – even though it is the only major British race in which she has never entered a winner.