Cheltenham Festival

I had the pleasure of attending Cheltenham Festival for the blue riband of National Hunt Racing in March. I went on Ladies Day partly to get inspiration from the fashions on show, partly for the social, but most of all to see the horses! I went with my boyfriend David Dent who is a fine artist of the horse.

I wore a Biba purple velvet suit and created a hat to match teaming it with purple over knee boots and a vintage green fox fur collar. I added a bright green feather to the purple ones and bought a bag in lime green to contrast, and of course my 'Emerald Venom" necklace which I sell on the website by Alchemy, for a bit of edge. My friend designer Gariela Rose wore one of her own brilliant blue velvet jackets and a silver banded trilby. And her model Lucy wore one of Gabriela's orange tweed jackets with a Aoife Hannon hat.

I felt that many of the girls at the meeting were dressed inappropriately for racing. I am told this is a new development but its a great shame as many obviously had little interest in the racing. Fashion should compliment the event and horse racing is not a provincial night club ladies! It was a very cold day and those unsuitably dressed were clearly suffering.

However many ladies were dressed beautifully and each race I studied the horses at the paddock. I paid off as I bet 5 winners! My losing bet was on Balthazar King who fell in the cross country which we crossed the course to see but he was ok.

It was also nice to meet Cotswold Allure photographer David Savill and see another friend Mail on Sunday journalist Joanna Bell.

But the stars of the day were the horses. Sprinter Sacre was amazing and it was lovely to stand by the fences to see the cross country. Any Currency won it with a brave display.