The Derby

Posted on 2016/06/08 23:43:45 (June 2016).

[Saturday 4th June 2016]
See the entry on Royal Ascot for more background on my recent fascination with morning dress.

I'd been planning Royal Ascot from as far back as January, keen to give my morning suit an outing. It wasn't until the latter half of April that I'd discovered another racing event also has an area where morning dress is worn - the Queen's Stand on Derby Day at Epsom Downs. It had also proved much easier to get into - you just buy a ticket on the website, for not massively more than the normal price, and then show up. Given that, I obviously didn't have any expectation that it would have quite the grandeur of Royal Ascot, but it was a nice added bonus - an additional chance to wear my morning suit and top hat this year.

It also seemed to be much easier to get other people to come along to, being much cheaper and less effort to book than the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, so we ended up with a decent sized group of five of us.

Getting there was a big part of the experience, stepping out of the front door in a top hat and a morning suit for the first time was quite fun, particularly in our part of London, which is not particularly sartorially inclined and I suspect not brimming with countenance for anything which might be considered symbolic of the aristocracy. So the top hat met with some disapproving stares, which I found quite amusing.

On arrival at Epsom Downs, following the long trek from the station (again feeling slightly self conscious about being substantially more formal in our attire than most other people around us) we eventually reached the Queen's Stand, and set up camp on the Prince's Lawn at a good vantage point where we (A) had some seats, (B) could just about see the racing and most importantly (C) were very close to the bar. Rather incongruously there was a smartphone app for ordering drinks which I made use of to save a few fractions of a second each time another bottle was required. We worked our way through 5 bottles of Champagne in total over the course of the afternoon, which wasn't too raucous considering there were five of us.

Provision of food was a bit lacking, particularly for the probably ill fitting demographic of vegetarians, and so my lunch ended up being a rather bland sandwich in a cardboard triangle. Quite at odds with the otherwise glamorous atmosphere (well, it wasn't quite Royal Ascot, but we were drinking Champagne wearing top hats).

The betting went reasonably well, I overall made a small profit thanks largely to a surprise win from Harzand in the day's main race, although my winnings didn't really make a dent in the Champagne bill. To be honest I wasn't all that interested in the gambling today anyway, I just wanted to sip Veuve Clicquot and enjoy the top hat wearing atmosphere.

Things went a little bit downhill when it was time to head home, the atmosphere on the way back to the station was a little uncomfortable and wearing a top hat amidst the lary and rather less the sober crowd made me feel a bit of a target - one rather unpleasant lout chose to randomly hurl an insult in my general direction, from the safety of the upper deck of a bus. I found out afterwards there had been some arrests due to some small outbursts of violence. So if I did go again I think I'd definitely make alternative arrangements for the journey home, and it made me all the more glad I'd just booked a car for the way back from Ascot.

We had a bit of a wait for a train, in what seemed like a huge queue which couldn't possibly all fit on one train, but somehow we all got on, and even managed to find seats. So other than that one oaf it wasn't really too bad, but it did rather sour the occasion a bit.

That aside though I had thoroughly enjoyed spending the afternoon in a morning suit and a top hat.

Kimattemasune!
Sutekidesuyo,

Posted by yoko at 2016/06/11 14:18:21.

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