{"id":20602,"date":"2013-06-23T22:54:39","date_gmt":"2013-06-23T20:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/a-day-at-one-of-racings-biggest-events\/"},"modified":"2013-06-23T22:54:39","modified_gmt":"2013-06-23T20:54:39","slug":"a-day-at-one-of-racings-biggest-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/a-day-at-one-of-racings-biggest-events\/","title":{"rendered":"A day at one of racing\u2019s biggest events"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t \"Photo:<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo: Getty Images.<\/p>\n

At Royal Ascot<\/a>, in the plusher lavatories in the higher echelons of the imposing grandstand, there are plastic trees, free mouthwash, hand and nail cream, aftershave, moisturiser, deodorant, a shoe brush.<\/p>\n

There are even urinals. And racecards.<\/p>\n

For five days in June, this is a world like no other, where the planet\u2019s best thoroughbreds compete amid a carnival of colour, fashion, gambling and partying.<\/p>\n

Thirty races over six days with \u00a35m in prize money, and a total of 280,000 spectators who get through 170,000 pints of beer and 50,000 bottles of champagne.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe racing is the best racing in the world, but it has this sense of occasion, of being different to all other meetings, that sets it apart,\u201d says award-winning Racing Post journalist Alastair Down.<\/p>\n

It is one surreal stop on the British summer social sporting calendar, where all human life from the cheeky council estate chancers to the top-hatted aristocracy can be observed, in their greatest and basest forms.<\/p>\n

Racegoer Debbie Cragg is here, with a mixture of mothers and daughters in a seven-strong party, easing into the day with a chilled glass of ros\u00e9 and a casual look at the form.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do we come? It\u2019s a mixture of everything \u2013 from choosing your outfit, organising it all, the fantastic atmosphere, the horses,\u201d says the 50-year-old from Cobham in Surrey.<\/p>\n

On a normal day, she is a fundraiser for a children\u2019s hospice called the Shooting Star Chase, helping kids for whom this glamour and glitz is far removed from their serious illnesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a fun day out, a chance to relax, for us all to meet up, and we don\u2019t care if we win or we lose,\u201d she says. \u2013 BBC Sport<\/a><\/p>\n

Related articles<\/h6>\n