I ventured down to the Thoroughbred Racecourse today to see the frocks, hats and copious amounts of alcohol which Canberrans brought out to celebrate the day of the Race That Stops The Nation.
There were quite a lot of people carting bottles of champagne around. The bar tents had signs saying limit of four drinks per person, but it was unclear how full size champagne bottles fit into this limit. This is Luke and Nikki.
As the fashionistas predicted, many of the frocks were in black and white, although there was still an awful lot of colour around the place. This is Tammy, Lauren and Sarah.
Polka dots were also a strong feature, in all colours. Note also the dress second from the right — it crops up later on. This is Vicki, Nikki, Kelly and Emma.
Despite appearances, this is actually a dress (on Tahnee) not a jumpsuit. I didn’t see any jumpsuits all day. Most of the men were reasonably dressed up. This is Ryano, Leroy, Clydie, Pete and Tahnee (apparently).
I had heard that fascinators were out this year, but this was not at all evident on the Canberra racecourse. This is Kirsty, Mim and Keith.
These lovely ladies were quite possibly the drunkest I encountered early in the day. I do like the take on a French maid’s outfit. This is Shanara, Monica, Michelle and Aleera (although Michelle wanted them to be known as the Sex and the City girls).
I only had one person refuse to have their photo taken (pity, he was wearing a rose in his lapel which matched his tie). The guys in this picture had me take several with various permutations of their group. This is Benn, Rob, Alexandra, Stacey, Jess, Sammi and Harley or Mitch.
I really liked the brown pinstripe suit here. This is Deano and Wes.
I’m told wherever there are large groups of Australian drinking, you will find kilts. I spotted three in total today. This is William, Renee, Michael, Jessica and Jack.
There were also several variations on this dress floating around, being worn with various degrees of bustiness. This is Daniel and Stacey.
That dress I told you to remember some pages ago? Look familiar? But the real question in this kind of situation is which pulls it off better. This is Jane, Lisa and Corinne.
The day definitely belonged to the groups of girls having Grand Days Out, with lots of champagne of course. This is Lauren, Jess, Jean, Natalie, Leanne and Brianna.
I’m also a fan of the nude sheath with black lace. Also, the girl on the left, Tracey, has the same shoes as I was wearing. I wonder if she has as many blisters? This is Tracey McMahon, Stacey Hill and Nicole Scott.
The older ladies tended to be dressed more sensibly given the sunshine (and cloudy morning) than the younger ones. This is Peter and Karen Crowe.
Enjoying a very civilised picnic (with table and all mod cons) were Jamie and Robyn.
I suspect the girl on the left here, Leslie, had noticed another nearby in the same dress although each had accessorised quite differently. There were a lot of floral patterns around, which I suppose is to be expected for spring. This is Leslie, Roland and Clair.
Although cocktail dresses ruled the racecourse, there were a couple of full-length ones around, such as this one. This is Beck, Kelly and Jahne.
I particularly like the matching boots and dress outfit here. This is Rose, Shane and John.
Wandering round the bookkeepers was a very realistic (if a little bumpy) Spongebob Squarepants and friends. This is Carly, Damien (well, his legs) and Jamie.
I think these fellows come dressed like this every year and had attracted much attention because they said they’d thought perhaps they should print up business cards. This is Ricky, Gavin and Rob.
This couple were checking out the horses prior to the second race while I admired her satiny shirt dress — very trendy and very flattering on her. This is Suzanne and Scott.
There were a surprising number of younger people around, possibly first year uni students taking a break from exams but some looked even younger than that. I like the quirky twist some of them brought to the traditional race day outfits. This is Rhi, Andrew and Jess.
Probably the most impressive outfit, in my opinion, belonged to Sue Jackson.
Near the gates with their picnic hamper were Jean Head, Maxine Schumacher (in what I thought was a gorgeous vintage dress) and Ros Donnellan.
I think this safari suit had been attracting lots of attention, since his mates were trying to push him into the front of the photo. This is Brian Kurt, Michael and (allegedly — he didn’t know how to spell it) Dwayne.
Personally I liked the simple approach to outfits better, although I could see the advantage of having a big hat and hair off your neck. This is Racquelle.
I saw a couple of these beer case hats, this one more ingenious than the others by dint of having a brim (I also really like that blue dress). This is Sam, Alycia and Adam.
There were a few women in pants and fewer still in dress shorts. I think if worn with the right top and heels, knee-length shorts can look perfectly elegant, as here. This is Simone Herden-Drain and Paul and Susan Herden.
I’m a sucker for a pinstripe worn well (as Concat readers may know), although I’m not so certain about the leopard print. This is Lynne Jepsen and Marissa Balch.
This polkadot dress was one of the few around with high necklines, though the plunging back more than made up for that. This is Toni, Cecilia and Caroline.
This group of girls appeared to be enjoying their very first race day (like me) and had been inspecting the horses with some amusement. That short white dress (second from left) was one of the most popular today; I saw it on maybe half a dozen girls. This is Jemi, Jane, Anne, Lavinia, Jacqui and Meg.
I wasn’t sure whether these girls had conferred about their outfits or not, but they seemed to be part of a group where roughly half were wearing apricot dresses. This is Guy, Elle and Carly.
What day at the races would be complete without a few colourful characters hanging aorund? This is Ronald.
There were a number of the giant fluffy cowboy hats (mainly in fluro pink) on various male heads which led me to wonder if they were the thing at the Canberra Show this year. This is Hugh and Shane.
There were also some groups having Boys Days Out. These fellows seemed most amused by Hank’s cream-coloured pointy shoes. This is Clinton. Hank, Steve, Ryan and Russel.
I must mention, now I’ve come to the end, there were a couple a of horses hanging around as well.
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