Velvety textures, burgundy wools and a hatful of tricky questions
Trade was brisk in the boutiques but, in 2018, many wonder about the merits of Ladies Day
Yesterday was Ladies Day here: fashion, frocks (and furs), and a female winner in the last race as Katie Walsh landed the bumper. But what does a day for “ladies” represent in 2018? Is there a dissonance in a sport where some women win the major prizes while others are invited to consider that their presence ought to be decorative? Is the idea an anachronism: does it imply that women cannot or should not enjoy the sport on other days?
“Girls love to dress up, to peacock,” said Cheltenham spokesperson Sophia
Dale. “More women come to Ladies Day than the other days, and we had a record 58,932 here today. Overall, the gender split of our patrons is
60-40 in favour of men, but that’s not at all bad compared to some sports. We don’t really see a connection between having a Ladies Day for racegoers and the female competitors as such.” Fair enough. But as Radio Five Live presenter Gina Harding said: “There was a study done at the University of Liverpool which looked at a million races over 14 seasons and found that women riders perform no better or worse than men, but nevertheless only one in 100 rides in top races go to women. So, that is a story about a lack of opportunity at the highest level.”
The mood in many quarters these days is “this girl can”, not “this girl can wear a nice dress”. Alice Plunkett, who is on the board at Cheltenham, said: “The focus right now is on women and society, no doubt, but Ladies Day is a celebration of women, be it wearing beautiful clothes, or being a jockey like Katie Walsh or a broadcaster. We all love Cheltenham for different reasons.” Those saddling the horses rather than riding them are certainly setting a fine example. The current champions of jump-racing’s two most storied races are both trained by women: Lucinda Russell with Grand National winner One For Arthur, Jessica Harrington with Gold Cup hero Sizing John. It compares favourably with other sports in terms of women at the top: racing could quite reasonably ask how many Premier League teams are within a country mile of even considering a woman manager.
By the same token, the gender pay gap at the Jockey Club is three per cent, the Football Association is 23 per cent and the Lawn Tennis Association is 31 per cent. Many other sectors of society have pressing cases about equality or discrimination to answer.
Not unreasonably, some women jockeys are growing weary of being asked about being women jockeys, as opposed to being just jockeys.
Trailblazing burns a lot of fuel. And warmth was at a premium on a chilly day: trade was brisk in the boutiques and hat shops of the shopping village. Aoife Hannon, a milliner working with Laland and Bo, said: “I’d say the crowd looks a little younger this year. And where you draw young women, soon enough young men will follow.”
Fiona Browne, of Browne and Daughters, who makes Pippa Middleton-esque country-chic Henrietta coats, said that this year was “about burgundy wools and velvety textures” while Katie Powell, at Joules, picked out an appetite for “lots of navy and blues with plenty of layering”.
On the one hand, if people can be brought through the gates by horses, hats or whatever hoopla, then good for the sport. On the other, does it not seem terribly
old-fashioned when you get press releases stating “2,000 women picked their ‘winners’ by Royal connections or the colour of the jockey’s silks”? This data would appear to suggest that they have asked 2,000 idiots, not 2,000 women.
Jessica Rowles Nicholson, of Jessica Mary Designs, makes hats from repurposed vintage materials, very smart, very classic. She said: “We don’t pay much attention to fashions. If something is beautiful, it stays beautiful.”
Not everything feels obliged to move to the latest beat.