There are sporting events and then there are occasions, and these three are very much the latter. I’ve been lucky enough to get to one of them and have been quietly obsessed with the other two ever since. If you’re someone who thinks racing is just about the horses you haven’t seen what happens around the edges of these particular events, because that’s a whole other thing entirely.
Royal Ascot
So obviously Ascot has to be first doesn’t it. Royal Ascot in June is just one of those events that feels bigger than sport somehow. Five days at Ascot Racecourse, the Royal Family showing up each afternoon in carriages, the most extraordinary collection of hats you’ll ever see in one place. I went a few years back expecting to be mildly impressed and came away completely converted. The racing is genuinely world class by the way, it’s not just a fashion show with horses in the background, but the fashion is real and it matters and people take it seriously in a way that’s actually quite fun to be around. Planning your Royal Ascot outfits properly is not optional if you want to get it right, the dress code in the Royal Enclosure is strict and they do check so it’s worth reading the actual guidance rather than guessing. Neutral tones and a really good hat tend to do most of the heavy lifting. Get those two things sorted and you’re most of the way there honestly.
Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe
The Arc as everyone calls it is held at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris every October and if you haven’t heard of it before now, it’s basically the most important flat race in Europe. The best horses from all over the world come to run it and the whole thing has this incredible weight to it, like everyone there understands they’re watching something that actually matters. Paris being Paris, the fashion is something else. It’s not showy in the way Ascot can be, it’s more considered than that. Designer tailoring, clean lines, the kind of outfits that look effortless but clearly aren’t. There’s a confidence to the way people dress at Longchamp that I find genuinely inspiring, like nobody’s trying to get noticed but everyone looks brilliant anyway. It’s a very French approach to the whole thing and it works completely.
Dubai World Cup Right
So the Dubai World Cup is on a completely different level in terms of scale and I say that having seen some pretty grand racing events. Meydan Racecourse is enormous and glamorous in a way that doesn’t really have an equivalent anywhere else. The hospitality is extraordinary, the prize money is extraordinary, basically everything about it is turned up quite significantly compared to your average race day. The fashion reflects all of that. People go properly all out, bold colours, high end designers, outfits that would look at home on an actual red carpet. It’s more contemporary than Ascot, less bound by tradition and dress codes, which gives it a different kind of energy. I haven’t been yet but it’s very much on the list, the whole thing looks spectacular every year and the people watching it on television are clearly only getting a fraction of what it must actually feel like to be there. Three very different events, three very different experiences, but all of them worth following if you care about racing and fashion in roughly equal measure which, if you’ve read this far, you probably do.