Thousands of racegoers were dressed up to the nines as they arrived for the second day of Royal Ascot.
Ladies wearing vibrant summer dresses and extravagant hats and headpieces could be seen all over the racecourse today.
And despite the 27°C heat, gents stuck to the strict dress code and looked suitably trim in their three top hats, and three piece suits with tails.
This year’s races are on a list of pilot events chosen by the Government before potentially lifting all lockdown restrictions next month.
It means a crowd of up to 12,000 people is allowed each day at the Berkshire race track, after providing negative Covid tests.
Ticket sales show 8,404 are expected to show up today, followed by 9,774 on Thursday, 10,524 on Friday and 10,989 on Saturday.
This year’s Royal Ascot is the first to welcome attendees since 2019, as last year’s races were held behind closed doors due to the Covid pandemic.
As the five-day event kicked off yesterday, the Royal Family were out in force, with Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall, Princess Anne, Prince Edward and Sophie Wessex in attendance.
Mike and Zara Tindall also joined them in their first public appearance since the birth of their son Lucas in March.
The Queen, an avid lover of horse racing, missed Ascot for the second time in 69 years yesterday and is not expected to attend today either.
Her racing manager, John Warren, said her ‘energy levels are incredible’ considering she is 95, but she has had a demanding week.
After attending the G7 summit in Cornwall, she got the train back to Windsor in the middle of the night for the Trooping of the Colour and later met Joe and Jill Biden.
Mr Warren said the plan is to ‘see how it goes’ later this week but said the Queen would ‘certainly read the Racing Post every morning’ to check for results.
Among the royal arrivals today was Sophie, Countess of Wessex, joined by her husband Prince Edward, 57.
She wowed the crowd with her feathered hat, white blouse, midi skirt printed with large purple flowers, pink pumps and purple snakeskin-effect clutch bag.
Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, went for an all-cream ensemble with a wide-brimmed hat, while Princess Anne sported an emerald green dress, an off-white hat and mirrored sunglasses.
The ladies were joined by Prince Charles, Princes Margaret’s son, David Armstrong-Jones and Camilla’s ex-husband, Andrew Parker-Bowles.
Sophie’s appearance comes after she opened up about how the Duke of Edinburgh’s death has left ‘a giant-sized hole’ in the family.
In an interview on Naga Munchetty’s BBC Radio 5 Live show, she said: ‘I think, unfortunately, the pandemic has slightly skewed things, inasmuch as it’s hard to spend as much time with the Queen as we would like to. We’ve been trying to, but of course it’s still not that easy.
‘And of course the normal way of things isn’t normal yet, so we’re not necessarily doing the things that we would normally have done with him.
‘So I think the whole grieving process is probably likely, for us, to take a lot longer. It may be the same for many other families out there.’
The countess added: ‘It’s only when you would do the normal things that you would have done with them, and you suddenly realise that they are not there, that you really start to have an ‘Oh my goodness’ moment.’
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