Horses a sideline attraction as fashion is the focus

SOME were only short a red carpet and others may as well have been wearing one but from fashion queen to borderline obscene, the horses were only a sideline attraction at Galway Race Course yesterday.

From early morning, there were traffic jams snaking along every road from Ballybrit — which was baffling because, given the chance, most of the hats on show could have flown to the track themselves and taken a few passengers with them.

When everyone came through the gates, they had amounted to an all-time record attendance of 48,120 minus the politicians, but including the likes of Westlife’s Shane Filan, David O’Leary and Kevin Moran.