Dom Pannell's Blog

A day at the races

Yesterday was Derby Day, which is the climax of The Vodafone* Derby Festival. This is one of the most famous sporting events in the British sporting calendar. According to the official blurb, it is "a truly unmissable two day festival of horse racing which dates back to 1780." The first day of the festival is called Ladies Day.

The races at Epsom are flat, which means there is no jumping - horses run round the course... well, strictly speaking, they don't run completely round anything, because the course is actually an elongated horseshoe shape (Type the postcode KT18 5LQ into Google Earth and it'll fly you to the the race track) Sited in the Epsom Downs (which I visited last year), the course is set in a magnificent natural amphitheatre formed by rolling hills.

If one wishes to attend the Derby, there are two ways of approaching it:

One is the posh way, with its strict dress code:

Queen's Stand on Vodafone Ladies Day

This is a special day in the racing calendar and gentlemen are asked to wear a jacket, collar and tie. Hats are not compulsory but many wear them. Jeans, sports shoes and denim are not allowed in the Queen's Stand

Queen's Stand on Vodafone Derby Day

Gentlemen must wear either black or grey Morning Dress with a top hat, or Service Dress. Ladies are asked to wear formal day dress or a trouser suit with a hat.

Grandstand on both days

The dress code is officially smart casual, and jeans and trainers are discouraged. Many people like to dress up for both Vodafone Ladies Day and Derby Day.

Grandstand Hospitality Boxes on both days

Gentlemen are asked to wear a jacket, collar and tie. Ladies do not have to wear a hat, but many do.

The other way is to join the many thousands of hoi polloi who don't dress up, but who go along for a bit of a party in the countryside. This is the approach that I adopted yesterday.

I joined fifty or so other people on a very well-organised unofficial work outing (at least I assume it was unofficial) who left Soho Square in a 57-seater coach at a little past 9am. My buddy Simon came along. Here he is demonstrating our dress code:

Colin organised the trip and had a busy day ensuring that everybody was happy and fully fed and watered. Here he is on the coach distributing quantities of bachannalian delight:

Here's the first view I had of the stadium. Note the red carpet that was most definitely not put down for our party:

People arrived in various modes of transport. They came by road:

They came by air:

and they came in their thousands!

The police were around to look after us:

Simon and I got as close to the finishing post as we could - reaching the final furlong marker for one race. Look the posh people are the other side of the race track:

After losing some money (I bet on two races and lost on both) Simon and I wandered back towards the coach, past bookkeepers stands, hog roasts, bouncy castles, helicopters... well, actually we didn't wander past the helicopters - neither Simon nor I had flown in a helicopter, so we took the opportunity of having a spin in this one:

We got a pretty good view of the race course from above:

and the Downs:

which stretch for several miles

We could see London in the distance:

But it was soon time to land and to rejoin our party.

The weather was outstanding and despite covering my arms and face with sun block, I am now red as a berry. Hopefully the colour will go down a little before I return to work, although I think it'll stay for another few days.

Eventually we climbed back onto the coach for the return journey to London, although some people were still partying heartily even as our coach left. This lot had brought their own disco and were dancing away as we pulled off:

It was a fantastic day with lots of fun people. Thanks for organising it, Colin.

*Next year it'll be called something else.

Posted by dompannell at June 3, 2007 9:21 AM