YOU can’t beat a combination of pedigree and top class form at the Curragh.

Field Of Gold and Lake Victoria both had the race record and the genes to win the Guineas last weekend and, off the track, the Ashford Castle Style Icon competition also went to a well-backed winner.

Davinia Knight from Portarlington won the coveted title and it should have been no surprise. Her sister Chloe won it last year and Davinia herself is a previous best dressed winner at Galway and Kilbeggan.

A third Knight sister, Dawn, is also a blacktype performer in the racecourse fashion stakes. Davinia’s Curragh ensemble featured a sunshine-yellow Needle & Thread dress rented from Nella.ie, a Bunclody-based company that champions sustainable fashion. To complement her look, she donned a headpiece from Marc Millinery and carried a chic basket bag borrowed from her mother’s wardrobe. Her shoes were also borrowed from her 21-year-old daughter.

THE Irish National Professional Bookmakers Association are sponsoring free admission for everyone at Gowran Park on Monday, a public holiday.

Feature race is the €200,000 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Gowran Classic which has prize money down to 10th place. The winner will receive an automatic free entry into the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby and, new to the series this year, a winning filly gets free entry to the Juddmonte Irish Oaks.

Singer-songwriter and TikTok star Robert Grace will be performing after the racing.

CONGRATULATIONS to champion lady rider Jody Townend who last weekend qualified for the amateur show jumping finals at the Dublin Horse Show in August. More details are carried in the Irish Horse World section.