{"id":884682,"date":"2026-04-10T13:10:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T13:10:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/884682\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T13:10:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T13:10:29","slug":"ladies-day-hats-turn-heads-at-aintree-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/884682\/","title":{"rendered":"Ladies Day hats turn heads at Aintree \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Racegoers are turning heads in hats which are bigger and better than ever as the \u201cScouse Met Gala\u201d gets under way at Aintree.<\/p>\n

Punters dressed in florals and bright colours for Ladies Day, the second day of the annual racing festival, which culminates with the Grand National steeplechase on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Among the expected crowd of 50,000 at the Merseyside racecourse was Zara Tindall, wearing a cream trouser suit with matching hat, who was with her husband Mike and daughter Mia.<\/p>\n

\"ZaraZara Tindall on Ladies Day of the Randox Grand National Festival 2026 (Owen Humphreys\/PA) <\/p>\n

Charlotte Hawes, 32, from Wallasey, Wirral, said her hat, which was black and adorned with an arrangement of red roses, was \u201cheavy\u201d but \u201csecure\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Octopus<\/a>\"Watchdog<\/a><\/p>\n

She said: \u201cBigger is better I think, you\u2019ve got to go all out haven\u2019t you? It\u2019s once a year, Ladies Day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love everyone\u2019s style, everyone really makes an effort. It\u2019s the Scouse Met Gala, as they say. All the girls of Liverpool are so stylish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milliner Steph Corlett, 38, from Maghull, Merseyside, had been making her burgundy horse-shaped headpiece up until the night before the races and said it had been her busiest year yet for Ladies Day orders.<\/p>\n

\"MillinerMilliner Steph Corlett (Owen Humphreys\/PA) <\/p>\n

She said: \u201cThe hats have suddenly just become a big thing now, the last few years it\u2019s just got bigger and bigger. I think since Covid, people make more effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some racegoers were still trying to keep costs down while looking their best.<\/p>\n

Hannah Mooney, 32, from Widnes, Cheshire, had sourced her tweed and brown outfit, with a camel-coloured trilby, from charity shops and preloved selling app Vinted.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cMy aim was to spend as little as possible on an outfit so I could spend more on betting on the horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA racegoer on day two of the festival (Mike Egerton\/PA) <\/p>\n

Her sister Jessica Mooney, 34, who wore a floral long-sleeved dress with a white headband, said: \u201cYou don\u2019t see anything like this anywhere else.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely one of the best days of the year. Everyone puts so much effort in. The hats and the dresses are just incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Helen Scott-Allen, 46, from the Isle of Man, opted for vintage, with a 1950s horse-racing themed Paganne dress bought from eBay.<\/p>\n

Her hat, which featured a horse and jockey, had been shipped from America.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cIt was well-packaged thankfully.<\/p>\n

\"RacegoerRacegoer Leanne Kelly, from Perth (Mike Egerton\/PA) <\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as this festival finishes I start planning it for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her husband, Dave Allen, 44, said his colour co-ordinated outfit was more last-minute.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI do exactly as I\u2019m told with about five minutes notice \u2013 so Helen puts a year\u2019s worth of planning into it and I just do as I\u2019m told on the morning of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leanne Kelly. 41, from Perth, Scotland, wore a huge floral and feathered headpiece to match her off-the-shoulder dress.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201d It\u2019s all about the hat. I just love a hat. For me it\u2019s got to be big, it\u2019s got to be bold, it\u2019s got to be something fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Racegoers are turning heads in hats which are bigger and better than ever as the \u201cScouse Met Gala\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":884683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8815],"tags":[1959,748,393,287,4884,230337,179,2615,8129,25382,10022,16,15,13083],"class_list":["post-884682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-liverpool","tag-aintree","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-grand-national","tag-great-britain","tag-ladies-day","tag-liverpool","tag-merseyside","tag-mike-tindall","tag-north-west","tag-social","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-zara-tindall"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116380581175821432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}