PRINCESS Anne dropped into Malton on Friday to attend a legendary racehorse trainer’s 80th birthday.

A burgundy helicopter landed on the fields at Malton School just before noon.

The Princess Royal was greeted by the school’s head teacher Rob Williams and Donna Johnson, head of upper school, as well as head boy and girl Thomas Williamson and Megan Clibbens, who had the chance to have their pictures taken with the princess and with the royal helicopter.

Princess Anne then went to visit the jockey rehabilitation centre at Jack Berry House in Malton in the afternoon.

Her visit was for a private lunch party given by the Injured Jockeys Fund in recognition of Jack Berry’s 80th birthday.

Jack Berry has been a dedicated fundraiser for the fund over many years, having helped form the fund in 1964.

He broke his leg in a fall from a racehorse in the late 1960s and soon after became a trainer.

Jo Russell, manager of Jack Berry House, said: “It was a nice party with about 160 guests, the majority of whom are beneficiaries of the Injured Jockeys Fund.”

Princess Anne is patron of the Injured Jockeys Fund charity, which was founded over 50 years ago.

She officially opened Jack Berry House - a £3.1 million rehabilitation centre for injured jockeys - in Malton in June 2015.

Jack Berry House is the fund’s northern rehabilitation centre - another, in Lambourn, was opened in 2009, and a third will open in Newmarket in 2019.