THE chilly weather didn’t deter the fashionably inclined at Sunday’s Sale Cup.
In fact, it inspired a cool new trend umbrellas and gumboots.
Fashions on the Field was hotly contested in all categories this year.
The women’s category was brimming with lace, fuller skirts, longer hemlines, block heels and pastel colours.
Kiara Manning won the women’s open category, with Harmonie Smith taking out runner-up in the women’s open category and best hat.
Pastels also featured heavily in the men’s category, and it was clear blue is a season favourite, with winner and runner-up in cobalt blue and blue-grey suits respectively.
William Hector won the men’s, with Adrian Roberts runner-up.
In the junior categories, Archie Sanders, aged three, won the best dressed boy, Ebony Running, aged six, won best dressed under 13 girl, and Amy Chaplain, aged 17, won best dressed under 17 girl.
On course, it was First Course which won the Sale Cup on a heavy track in a photo finish.
The eight-year-old gelding, ridden by Ben Thompson, held on to win from Cool Chap, trained by Lee and Anthony Freedman and ridden by Craig Newitt.
First Course is trained by Ken Keys at Cranbourne.
Organisers estimated more than 3000 people attended the Sale Cup meeting, slightly down on last year.
POLICE say they were happy with the crowd’s behaviour, saying patrons were “generally well behaved”.
Police conducted around 300 breath tests at the main entry of the racecourse, and recorded a few low level readings, but detected no offences.
Only one arrest was made, with police pleased with the way the majority of the crowd responded to directions.
