Zara Tindall warmly embraced Queen Camilla as the pair were pictured enjoying a day out at the races in Ascot on Saturday.

The 45-year-old royal dressed in autumnal grey for British Champions Day on Saturday and looked stylish in a smart tweed jacket coupled with a white pussybow blouse and brown leather skirt.

She complemented her outfit with a grey hat sporting an oversized black bow and black-grey nail varnish.

Zara, daughter of Princess Anne, was pictured leaning in as she affectionately greeted the Queen, who looked every inch regal in a long blue overcoat, with a dainty horseshoe brooch attached to her collar.

Camilla rounded off her outfit with a bespoke Philip Treacy navy hat.

The pair were all smiles as they attended the ultimate finale of the British Flat racing season.

Both share a passion for horses and equestrian sports and are often spotted taking in the action at Ascot. 

Zara is a particular fan as a distinguished sportswoman herself. 

She won an Olympic silver medal at London 2012, in the equestrian eventing, alongside team-mates Tina Cook, William Fox-Pitt, Mary King and Nicola Wilson.

Her father Captain Mark Phillips is also a former Olympic event rider, having won team gold for Britain in 1972.

Zara's husband Mike Tindall admitted earlier this week that raising three children while Zara continues to compete has brought its own challenges.

Speaking to the Talk Horse podcast, he said: 'You forget sometimes life is hard when kids come along and you try to still compete.

'Fortunately, when Mia came along, that was my last year, so I haven't been a professional athlete whilst the kids have been around.'

He also recognised the guilt Zara can experience trying to combine motherhood with elite sport.

Mike said: 'You've got to try and play a support role at the same time because mums do have mother's guilt. It's a thing.

'And it can be really hard at times. I won't say I get it right all the time, but you've got to try and do it whatever ways you can.'

The couple also teased each other about Mike taking the children to a football game rather than watching Zara's cross-country at Blenheim Horse Trials last month.

Mike pointed out that she had won the British Open the last time he stayed away, adding: 'Maybe not having distractions and kids around could be part of the issue.'

He also credited humour with helping them through sporting setbacks, saying: 'Sometimes things are s*** and you've just got to say s*** and have a joke about how s*** it is.

'I think that massively helps because sometimes, in those darkest times, only humour can get you through.'

Zara this month told Talk Horse about the tough-love upbringing she received from Princess Anne and Mark Phillips – including being informed she would get no help when she decided to follow her parents into top-level equestrian sport.

The King's niece said her parents warned her she would have to prove herself if she wanted to make a career out of it.

She also said Olympic gold medallist Mark was such a hard taskmaster that she would struggle to ever win his approval.

And Zara admitted the experience influenced her own approach to parenting, saying she was now trying 'not to be quite that bad' with the next generation.

Speaking on the podcast, Zara said: 'When I was about to leave school – and I had a great last couple of years at school and didn't do very much work; I played lots of sport – I then thought, [I'll] just see if I'm any good at it.

'You know, riding a horse, try and find something that could maybe go all the way.'

She continued: 'I think my dad and my mum were like, "But you have to do it properly. And this is how it's going to work. And you're not getting any help and you need to produce results".

'Mum's very relaxed. She's like, "Just, you know, just do what you do". Whereas my father's like, "More of this, more of that".

'My father was quite critical. Very rarely you would get a, "Yeah, that was good", out of him. So it was always striving to try and get that comment. He was a tough coach.'

Zara went on to win individual gold at the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Aachen with her horse Toytown, having taken European individual gold the previous year. 

She was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2006.