It started off well – heels and hats on – but on Ladies’ Day in Ballybrit, only the strongest fillies will have the stamina required to survive the day. Make-up by Dulux, flip flops by design
AND THEY were off. Trotting by the champagne tent, shimmying past the best dressed tent, stepping nimbly around the boys (“you’re a fine thing, c’mere to me”) outside the beer tent. It was Ladies’ Day yesterday and the serious contenders who came to Ballybrit from all parts of the island knew the drill. Look nonchalant at all times. Walk in a figure of eight in view of the judges. Pout. Stay upright. Smile.
They arrived in Galway looking like members of the royal family. They left, some of them, heels replaced with flip flops, kicking through the Ballybrit debris, hot beef roll wrappers and beer bottles, looking more like members of the BBC's Royle Family.
The hair, the hats, the make-up, the “please pick me” grins: it’s impossible to sustain the Ladies’ Day look – cocktail party meets wedding meets Rose of Tralee contestant – for longer than a few hours. You’d be killed trying to look that groomed all day. Some started on the champers at noon. The tent where you could buy bottles for €160 and €110 and no-you-can’t-buy-it-by-the-glass was jam-packed for most of the day. By 3.30pm, when the Best Dressed Person winner was announced, all bets and quite a few hats were off – or, at least, seriously askew.
Amid a sea of hopefuls, some of us spotted the winner early on. Annmarie O'Leary from Co Kerry looked as though she had walked off the set of a 1940s movie. Her ivory dress with shoulder bow detail, designed by Karyn Moriarty in Tralee, was inspired by a Voguepattern from the era. "They knew how to make dresses for women back then – it is so comfortable and so well constructed," she said. Her vintage-inspired hat was made by Carol Kennelly, a Co Kerry milliner and past winner of the best dressed person prize. When Ryan's name was announced she got a huge cheer from her stylish Tralee friends – several of whom had also made it through to the final round of the competition.
“It’s her 40th birthday,” they shouted, as she was presented with an €8,500 diamond pendant and a €1,500 shopping spree in sponsor Anthony Ryan’s Galway shop.
"This is the best birthday present in the world," she said. Annmarie's style icon is Audrey Hepburn and, performing sweeping bows later in the parade ring, she seemed to be channelling her icon in My Fair Lady. At home in Co Kerry where she lives in a cottage with a dog, she sells flowers for a living, just like Eliza Doolittle. The prize for the Best Hat – a black ring-layered creation with rose detail, bought in New York – was won by Galway woman Aoife Ryan.
The politicians were mostly gone on their holliers and celebrities were thin on the ground in a crowd that was up by 2,000 on last year’s Ladies’ Day. Sipping champagne with his daughter, former Miss World Rosanna Davison, Chris de Burgh was in nostalgic form, remembering when he used to put his sixpence on horses and have picnics on race tracks. He used to own a few nags himself; Don’t Pay The Ferryman and High On Emotion, to name two.
Canny Rosanna had got Dad to fly her and a few friends to the racecourse in his chopper direct from his back garden in Co Wicklow. The sometimes media-unfriendly de Burgh was only delighted to chat about his 20th studio album, Moonfleet and Other Stories, recorded in Abbey Road and due out this year, and about the gig he is doing in Georgia, in the Caucasus region, in a couple of weeks. "I was invited by the president," he said.
De Burgh had no tips for us and didn’t plan to do much betting: “Life is a gamble,” said philosopher De Burgh. Rosanna said she was excited about starting a course in biomedicine and nutrition in September. Her dress was from Chica in Dublin. “But I had it in the wardrobe already, so I’m a bit of a recessionista today,” she said.
“Recession, what recession?” said one older gentleman in a cap, watching the ladies walk past in their finery. He was confused when he spotted drag queens Davina Devine and Victoria Secret, who were turning heads while promoting a sports website.
They were giving the other ladies a run for their money, standing 6ft 4 in their heels. “We are looking for some fine fillies or maybe some stallions today,” said Davina. Their make-up was, they said, by Dulux – and they had that in common with some of the other ladies in Ballybrit. They said they would be having an alternative ladies’ day today in Galway city, with a mud-wrestling competition.
The rain kept off so there was no mud-wrestling at the track, but there is a good case to be made for having an alternative ladies’ day at the races next year. At least then the drag queens (there were four), the singing and dancing sailor girls from comedy troupe Glamedy (there were five) and the ladies with the lip piercings (we spotted only one) could battle it out in a more leftfield competition.
Sharon O’Brien Gleeson (22) from Dublin stood out because of her 11 tattoos (one of a panda on the back of her leg and one on her arm with the name of her young son Noah) and her lip piercing. “Everyone looks like everyone else; I mean, they look great but I like standing out, so I am glad there is nobody else like me,” she said.
There was also some horse racing going on yesterday. Overturn won the Hurdle and the onslaught continued for the bookmakers, who were hung out to dry after wins by Beau Michaels, Lady Luttrell and Smart Striking.
“I don’t know how much more of this we can take,” said Hayley O’Connor from Ladbrokes. “The punters’ pockets are bursting and they’re grinning from ear to ear.” The ones who replaced the heels with flip flops were, anyway; the rest were just grimacing as they queued on a path of hardcore rubble for a taxi back into town.
