A Lady in London

It’s that time of year again. Time for horse races, time for Pimm’s, time for the Queen to arrive in her carriage to the delight of the crowds. It’s time for Royal Ascot.

It has been a year since I was last at Royal Ascot, and I was excited for the event. Even though my official modeling duties as the Face of Ascot are over, I still love returning to Royal Ascot every year for a day of racing and fashion.

On Wednesday I headed to Berkshire with a friend to attend the second day of Royal Ascot. We arrived under ominously gray skies, but thankfully we were starting our day at an event under a marquee. It was the second event to celebrate the My Kingdom for a Horse exhibition for the 300th anniversary of Ascot Racecourse.

We spent some time exploring the exhibition, sipping sherry, and catching up with others we knew. My friend made sure to embarrass me when we came across my portrait in the exhibition, but I safely hid when she tried to take a picture of me in front of it.

After the event, we walked around the grounds for a bit and discovered Charlie Langton’s new statue of Ascot’s greatest racehorse, four-time Gold Cup winner Yeats.

Soon the queen appeared in her carriage with much pomp and circumstance. We all gathered in the rain to get a glimpse of her before she disappeared into the royal box.

Then it was time for the races. We stood in the parade ring to watch the horses on display, then made our way to the track to cheer for our favorites. They didn’t win. Thankfully we were wise enough not to bet on them.

We repeated this ritual several more times before the afternoon came to a close. None of the horses we chose as favorites came close to winning. It was not our lucky day.

As we made our way back to London, we realized that the one piece of luck that we had that day is that we mostly escaped the rain.

I’m returning to Royal Ascot on Saturday, and I’m hoping to be that lucky again.