Fashions on the Field for the over 40s
Melbourne’s Spring racing carnival is hoping to attract more mature fashion-conscious racegoers this month with the Moonee Valley Racing Club organising an over-40s fashion competition for the over-40s.
At Flemington and at Caulfield, the average age of the winner of the Fashions on the Field prize has been 21, with one exception at Flemington in 2007 when a 45-year-old milliner from New Zealand – the home of many classy racing fillies – won the prize.
Now Moonee Valley will hold its first over-40s competition on Cox Plate Day, 24 October. The club’s head of marketing and communications, Raechel Lavelle, said that “we hope that the judges are impartial when it comes to age and looks because it is about the outfit. What we are trying to do is to encourage the more mature ladies that come along to the races to get up there and strut their stuff without feeling intimidated”.
Both the Melbourne Racing Club and the Victoria Racing Club are watching the Moonee Valley lead but some country clubs, such as the Mornington Racing Club, have had an over-35s fashion category for some time.
Mary Morton of the Melbourne Racing Club, said she would be interested to see “how this new competition goes as I do think there are some really smartly dressed older women who do tend to get eclipsed by girls in their early to mid-20s”.
