Hats off to Galway's racing ladies

The fake tans might not have been up to scratch but the flowery hats wereonly gorgeous as the sun finally came out for the ladies of Galway.

Anyone who fancied themselves as a runner in the best-dressed person competition at the Galway Races needed a hard neck under that hat. Rejection isn't easy. Not when you've spent months arranging the entire contents of a florist's on the top of your head. You want recognition. Or at the very least a free glass of champagne.

So it was slightly painful to watch the hopefuls milling around outside the judging tent pretending they just happened to be passing. Or maybe they were just hoping actor Gabriel Byrne, who had come to the races for Ladies Day, might make an appearance.

Denise O'Dwyer from Galway wore a magnificent black headpiece, with swirls of black and white reaching towards the sky. She looked stunning, but said she wasn't hopeful of being plucked from the crowd to be a finalist. "They tend to go for people whose outfit comes from Brown Thomas," she explained.

"It's a funny kind of thing to enter," said Catherine from Galway, who wore a blue, yellow and green dress with hoop wire through it. "I have to admit I've never walked around looking for the nod before. But I love my outfit and I want someone else to love it too."

The judging area was a different kind of parading ring than the one that held the thoroughbreds. A small patch of green felt in front of a tent was fenced off from the glamourous racegoers with five beefy security men at the door. A few middle-aged women rested on the fence, looking longingly in at the judges: TV3's Grainne Seoige, social diarist Angela Phelan, VIP fashion editor Emer O'Reilly Hyland and fashion adviser with competition sponsor Brown Thomas, Shelley Corker.

But one onlooker wasn't impressed. "I am disgusted," said beautician Erica Kelleher. "Disgusted I tell you." And what had got her so upset? "The style is lovely at the Galway Races this year but the fake tans are so badly applied. Everyone knows you have to buff before application. The leg make-up is atrocious. In the old days you had to wear tights to enter. Maybe they should bring that rule back in," she said.

When the sun began to shine for the first time at Ballybrit, entrants were all glad they hadn't covered up. The judging tent was sweltering, but the 18 finalists seemed to be keeping their cool. The solitary male finalist, John Coleman from Monivea, Co Galway, who wore a cream suit and Australian outback hat, was chuffed to have been chosen. "I do feel a bit odd though," he said.

And then the moment of truth. The €3,000 prize went to Maria McCullen (28) from Co Meath, who looked as though she was born to win competitions like these. (And her outfit didn't come from Brown Thomas either.) With chin up and shoulders back, she posed for Ireland in her leather trousers, from a shop called Trés Chic, appropriately enough, and off-the-shoulder white top crowned with a hat covered in silk red roses. The hat was inspired by the flowers planted by husband Maurice in their garden in Stamullen, Co Meath.

Teetering elegantly on three-inch heels, Maria confessed that patients at the foot clinic where she works in Navan wouldn't be too impressed with her footwear. "I'm always telling them not to wear heels like these," the foot specialist giggled as she went off for her photo shoot, followed by runners-up Rachel Clark from Dublin and former Miss Ireland, Vivienne Doyle.

In the parade ring, where Maria was presented with her prize, one racegoer said this kind of form was distracting him from betting. He gawped at the winners anyway, saying that in her cream top and black trousers Maria reminded him of a pint of Guinness.

Drink is never far away at this festival. On the fourth day of the races, some of the 38,248 punters (the biggest attendance at an Irish race meeting in modern times) looked a little worse for wear. The most upmarket partying has been taking place at the presidential suite of the Radisson Hotel, where part-owner Bernard McNamara holds court. He was even helping to organise the helicopters that ferried people to the races in three minutes flat. Among the crowds were Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, Renault boss Bill Cullen, comedian Brendan Grace, PR director Caroline Kennedy and property developer Sean Mulryan.

The day's big race, the Galway Hurdle, was won by Say Again, a horse owned by Sean Duggan from Hugginstown in Co Kilkenny.

Standing with his family, he said there would be a big party "even if none of us drink". With his race day outfit neatly accessorised by a pioneer pin, he may have been the only sober person in Galway city last night.