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Extravagant hats and fancy dresses were out in force on Ladies' Day at the Royal Ascot races Thursday, the colourful highlight of the prestigious five-day event.
Royal Ascot is one of the world's most famous meetings. Ladies' Day was attended by about 70,000 people gathered to sip champagne, have a punt and be seen at the glamorous pinnacle of the British high-society calendar.
Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Philip arrived in the traditional horse-drawn open-top carriage procession past the newly renovated main grandstand. They were accompanied by the Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the world's 15 million Ismaili Muslims and a keen racehorse owner.
The 80-year-old monarch threw many punters who bet on the colour of her hat by wearing the same hue as on Wednesday.
She wore a lime green hat decorated with pink roses with a lime green long jacket and matching skirt.
Punters had mostly placed their money on either red or white, with lime green closing at odds of 16 to one.
A spokesman for bookmakers Paddy Power said a betting representative was summoned to an audience with one of the queen's private secretaries where it was agreed that bets should close before the queen had chosen her outfit, to avoid accusations of insider dealings.
The spokesman said: "We may have been stung last year (when the queen wore brown) but, this time, Her Majesty kept the colour well and truly under her hat. Punters never expected to see two shades of one colour in a week."
The prestige Royal Enclosure's dress code is draconian: gentlemen must wear morning suits with a waistcoat and a top hat; ladies are "required to dress in a manner appropriate for a formal occasion". This means hats, no strapless dresses, and certainly no bare midriffs.
Susie Millen went for a football World Cup theme with a picture of England striker Wayne Rooney attached to her headband.
Alegra Whittaker, 24, wore a butterfly hat made by milliner-of-the-moment Philip Treacy at the highlight of her outfit.
"I've been planning it for four months. It's my first time, though, and I'm just loving it. I'm hoping to win some money and then drink some champagne."
Milliner Ilda Di Vico reckoned the general standard of headgear this year was not daring enough.
She said: "There's probably a handful of women who have really gone all out, but I was expecting a lot more."
Di Vico wore a two-foot (60-centimetre) high effort made up of ostrich feathers and crystals, which she only managed to finish the night before.
The wind, which caught out many skirt wearers on Wednesday, was giving Di Vico a tough time as she clung to her hat but she insisted it was all part of the fun.
"When it's Ascot, you've just got to grin and bear it, haven't you?" she said.
In the races, seven-to-one shot Yeats, ridden by Kieren Fallon, won the Ascot Gold Cup by five lengths ahead of Reefscape and Distinction.
The Gold Cup is the oldest race at the royal meeting, first run in 1807.
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AFPLifestyle-Britain-society-GBR-racing-Ascot
AFP 221720 GMT 06 06
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