CHESTER Racecourse was a sea of colour and laughter on the traditional Ladies Day which marks the midway point of the May Festival.

On a sun-drenched day at the Roodee, a bumper crowd basked in the bright spring conditions and lapped up a thrilling four hours of fashion, food, liquid refreshment and, of course, quality flat racing.

For many, the sporting action itself is more a sideshow to a day out with friends, family or colleagues, but with the spotlight firmly on the behaviour of spectators at racecourses following the shocking scenes at Goodwood last weekend, the Chester crowd showed the rest how it’s done with a wonderful atmosphere throughout the day, shown live on ITV.

For punters, who are now protected by anti-terrorism barriers on the road immediately outside the course, it was a dream start as A Momentofmadness was delivered late to win the opener under William Buick.

It was business as usual for the all-conquering duo of Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore as Rostropovich and Idaho landed the Dee Stakes and Ormonde Stakes respectively. O’Brien went around each owner of his winners to congratulate them on their success – a true gent.

Chester means much more for some, as former England and Liverpool striker Michael Owen explained before Dragons Tail, for whom he is a joint-owner, finished a gallant second.

“The May Festival is our Mecca,” Owen declared. “We’re north-west based, our owners want runners here and we’ve got hundreds of owners here every day. It’s Chester over Royal Ascot for us.

“It used to be easier to win here now all the best trainers are coming here, it gets harder and harder. We had one last year, four the year before, can we nick one this week?”

Silvestre De Sousa – known by his loving fans as “SDS” - was the next jockey to be the toast of the racegoers as he scored on Wedding Date, but for every winner, there are a host of unlucky losers and one of those, Tom Dascombe’s stable jockey Richard Kingscote, cut a frustrated figure having twice been denied under the shadows of the post on Dragons Tail and Finoah.

“It’s gutting to finish second here, it’s different to other tracks,” Kingscote said, as head-bowed he returns to the Weighing Room.

“It means everything to the yard and to the boss (Dascombe). The draws haven’t been kind, they’re not kind again on Friday. Maybe the luck will turn for us.”

As ever at the May Festival, there’s a fair amount of glitz and glamour on show, with former England captain Wayne Rooney and his wife Coleen enjoying an afternoon out in one of the best seats in the house, high up in the boxes. Burnley stars Stephen Ward, Jeff Hendrick, Kevin Long and Robbie Brady were also spotted soaking up the atmosphere and presumably planning for their European travails next season. Yet Chester is no longer a celeb-spotting exercise, it’s so much more than that.

There truly is no finer sight than the Roodee in May with the sun beating down. It’s a course which goes from strength to strength.