Excited and emotional racegoers return to Aintree for Ladies Day
The annual event was cancelled in 2020 and held behind closed doors in 2021 due to the pandemic.

Excited and emotional racegoers have returned to Ladies Day at Aintree for the first time in three years.
The event, famous for its style, made a comeback on Friday after being cancelled due to the pandemic in 2020 and held behind closed doors last year.
Gill Carpenter, 55, said she had been waiting two years to wear her outfit, a hot pink dress with orange accessories, complete with a striking hat she made herself.
She said: āIām actually quite emotional. This is my favourite meeting of the year.
āI love it, I love the atmosphere, I love the style, so I have found myself quite choked to actually be here.ā
Ms Carpenter, from Lydiate, Merseyside, said she had been to Ladies Day every year since she was a teenager.
She said: āI think people are just so happy to be back, to be out, to see the style and to see people in person again.
āThey tried to do it virtually and it was great, it kept us going, I dressed up at home and all of that, but to actually be here and the sun be out is just magical.ā
Jeanette Heaps, from Rainhill, Merseyside, said she was at Ladies Day for the first time with her husband and two sons.
She said: āThe sun is shining and itās amazing, I absolutely love it. Iām buzzing already and I have only just got here and I havenāt had a drink!
āLiverpool will come out in force and make this the best weekend ever.ā
Former Coronation Street actress Helen Flanagan was among the racegoers, wearing a brown dress and pink fascinator.
Edyta Jackson, 41, from Hull, wore a white and metallic long dress with a grey hat from Harrods to attend with husband Robert, 58.
She said: āI was thinking maybe the hat was too much, but itās never too much.ā
Mr Jackson said: āI think today is a kind of coming out, an adventure, for everybody to enjoy and embrace.ā
Tracey Allen, 48, and friends who had travelled from Cumbria for the races said they had spent two years planning their outfits after originally planning to come in 2020.
She said: āWe got locked down and then we couldnāt wear what we had, so we had to decide if we could still wear those dresses. We decided to buy something newā
Influencer Felicity Hayward and friend Natalie Farouz came wearing the same pink dress from Never Fully Dressed, but Ms Hayward wore it back to front with a pink fascinator while Ms Farouz accessorized with a oversized fluffy top hat.
Ms Hayward said: āWe both liked the same dress so we were like āletās do thisā.ā
Twenty-year-old Maya Killcross, from Port Sunlight, Wirral, wore a white dress with butterfly detail bought from an Instagram boutique along with a fascinator which she stuck butterfly details onto herself.
She said: āIāve been planning this for months.
āItās like two years worth of outfit because you have to make up for not having one last year.ā
Judith Beckett, 69, from Chesterfield, said she spent £10 on red and black striped material which her friend made into a dress, while another friend created her matching hat.
She said: āIt was dreadful when it was cancelled in 2020 so Iāve held the tickets over since then and held the accommodation over and now weāre here itās wonderful.ā