The annual Dublin Horse Show used to be a week where the gentry strutted their stuff in front of the plain people of Ireland, who paid money to watch them.
These days, 129 years on into the annual event, there is less strut and more stuff at the Donnybrook showgrounds, where only a few relics of "ould dacency" survive.
The bowler-hatted judges are still there, wearing more badges than a Third World general, but the serious business of showing, jumping and selling horses takes precedence now over grandeur.
This year, for instance, the most remarkable thing about the Kerrygold Horse Show, is that the €415,000 prize money is the highest on record and riders of international calibre have come from across the globe to compete.
In the smaller rings, professional people and suburbanites have replaced the red-faced farmers who used to be the backbone of the bloodstock industry here.
The farmers do, indirectly, support the show through the massive sponsorship of the Irish Dairy Board, which moved in and rescued the event 14 years ago and has put €6 million into sponsorship since then.
Basically, it is butter which oils the wheels of the RDS, which is now seen by a television audience worldwide and is the board's main vehicle to promote Irish dairy goods globally.
Yesterday, despite the bad weather, which kept many rural people away, Dubliners crowded the showgrounds for the jumping and other events.
The show was officially opened by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Mr Dermot Lacey, who spoke of the heritage bestowed on Dubliners by the Royal Dublin Society.
He also bucked convention by climbing on the Kerrygold Horse in the main hall to be photographed in his full regalia. Some were not certain which was the mayor or the mare.
Some of the exhibitors in the main halls were complaining yesterday that business was slow and they were selling much less than last year.
"There are plenty of lookers but few takers," one of the booksellers in the antiques fair section said. "Only for the Northerners with their sterling, things would be really bad."
Today will be all about the strut. It is Ladies' Day and hundreds of women are expected to take part in the competition for the best dressed woman.
Ms Celia Larkin, partner of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will be one of the judges in the competition, which has a car as first prize.