Royal Ascot diary

Oh, Father

Rupert Bell, brother of Gold Cup winning trainer Mike and father of ITV presenter Oli, is in front of the cameras for Ascot TV this week.

He made the most of Big Orange’s great victory on Thursday, indeed some might say he overdid it. But why not? It is not every day the family wins the Gold Cup.

A guest of racecourse chief executive Guy Henderson at dinner that night, he was eventually put to bed, having not intended to stay.

Yesterday morning, with the help of the Hendersons’ other guests, he borrowed a new waistcoat, clean shirt and tie. He had less luck, by the look of it, with a razor.

His son, who had ‘run on to the pitch’ as Big Orange crossed the line, was mortified. “He’s a compete embarrassment,” said Oli. “That’s my job to sleep in car parks.”

Size matters

At the Oliver Brown top hat stand, salesman Charlie Mingay is doing a solid trade in antique, one-of-a-kind toppers. He explained: “The looms that make this sort of plush silk have been out of production since 1968, so there is a finite supply, and a very high demand.”

Even Diane Abbott could do the economics of that one, and thus the toppers start from the low four-figures.

The most expensive of the black hats on display cost £8,000 and, as of yesterday morning, he had sold eight, including one to Mike Tindall.

The former England rugby captain has a surprisingly small head for such a sizeable gentleman: a size seven. Or, as Mingay put it: “Big guy, peanut head.”

A winner for Namibia The Commonwealth Cup really does what it says on the tin. There were 19 High Commissioners from the Commonwealth at Ascot yesterday, roughly 40 per cent of the total, being shepherded about by the Master of the Diplomatic Corps from Buckingham Palace. Best turned out were the representatives of Namibia.