The races. Is there anything more fun to get dressed up for? The glamour, the beautiful dresses, the millinery. Individuality comes to play in a million different ways. The build up to the day is half the fun – buying a dress (or making it if you’re exceptionally talented – I’m not! Haha), hunting down that perfect fascinator, accessorising…the list of fun goes on.
For me, I have a weakness for feminine styles. You’ll often find me in a floral fascinator and a pink or pastel coloured dress. I try to steer clear of wearing anything green as it is considered unlucky on the racetrack. Cox Plate Day will be filled with blue and white outfits for people getting into the spirit of Winx – the world’s highest rated turf horse. Lace is fast becoming a favourite of mine, it is a very feminine material and I’m excited to incorporate it into a few of my upcoming Spring Carnival outfits. The races are one of the last places you can really go to dress classy and we race almost every day of the year!
The races are also somewhere to go to catch up with friends over a few glasses of bubbly and I’m no exception.. But you’ll also see a million pieces of paper in front of me at any given time and for a few minutes after the race I’ll be scribbling notes. One day a punter came up to me and said “can’t you just relax and enjoy the day” but this is me relaxing & having fun. This is my passion. And what is this exactly? I’m a form analyst. Gone are my days of choosing horses based on the jockeys silks colours or the horses names (well, most of the time anyway 😉)
I spend hours every week studying Saturday’s races. Going through the form, watching replays, checking for updates, creating speed maps. Practically dissecting everything I can to find that winner we all crave to bet on. On a typical race day I wake up before dawn, start getting ready, check the final scratchings at 7.30am, update my notes where needed, post everything online then finish get ready. I’m not even at the track yet! Phew. But the hard work pays off. The late nights & early mornings are worth it. To sit back with friends enjoying the day and watching the horse I’ve selected on top hit the front and pass the finishing post first is all worth it.
When it’s your own horse it’s a different story! Ownership doesn’t have to just be for the millionaires – a lot of syndicates offer affordable shares these days and some syndicates even offer female-only ownerships. It’s extremely hard to put personal feelings aside when trying to analyse a race you own a horse in. I currently have 11 horses, 7 are babies still and as such are unnamed but I have had some good ones. I had Mossbeat who won almost $300k prize money and who I saw win in person at Moonee Valley on a Friday night earlier in the year. She has just been confirmed in foal to Winning Rupert. And now I have Urban Ruler who won at Flemington over Winter then finished second in the Winter championship final (we all lost our voices that day!). We’re hoping to have him run in the greys race on Oaks Day at Flemington if all goes to plan. Cheering on your own horse is the best feeling! The excitement, the anticipation and when they win- I can’t even explain that feeling!! There’s cheering, shaking, hugging, crying..then champagne in the winners room!
So make sure to keep it classy and make an effort even just for yourself because it really is worth it. And if you have a horse running on the day? Go that little bit further– who doesn’t want to look good in the winning owners photo?
Thank you for writing this interesting blog Allana xoxo you really are a racing all-rounder and we love your style xoxo
Best Dressed Access 