Zara Phillips stands out in understated pashmina

The problem is not scruffiness - Cheltenham does not have a dress code with tie and jacket the norm in the members' enclosures.

It is just that the racegoers look as if they might have been wearing blinkers when they got dressed that morning.

Tweed jackets are popular with the men, along with garish ties and socks, coloured shirts with white collars, coats with velvet lapels, yellow cords - all topped off with a flat cap or a trilby.

For women, the headscarf has thankfully become an endangered species.

But while the Ascot female seems to dress in order to stand out from the crowd, her Cheltenham counterpart appears to want to blend in - the enclosures are often a sea of fake fur mop hats.

The jumps crowd tend to be a down-to-earth bunch who don't see the point of buying new clothes unless their old ones have worn out.

Hence the same sheepskin jackets, wool coats and Barbours turn up year after year.

But Cheltenham need not be ashamed of its lack of sartorial style.

The Festival is not about fashion, it is about passion - for top quality, exhilarating jump racing.

The fact is that Cheltenham cannot produce a catwalk to match those of the top Flat meetings.

But the people coming here do not want to see a clothes horse - they want the genuine article.