It was the start of Glorious Goodwood, England's biggest summer racing fixture after Royal Ascot. But day two of Galway - the meeting so famous it doesn't need an adjective - was like Goodwood and Ascot combined.
The weather was certainly glorious. And, while the celebrities fell just short of royalty, the uncrowned king of Ireland arrived as scheduled to take up temporary residence at his summer palace.
Bertie Ahern swept into the royal tent to be greeted by lady-in-waiting Mary Coughlan and a pageboy, Ray MacSharry. Inside he mingled with courtiers who were enjoying a regal lunch of Connemara lamb and grilled halibut (for the Tuesday discount rate of under €300 a head). But when he emerged again he was in a downright republican mood.
Dismissing the "begrudgery" about Fianna Fáil's best-known fundraising operation, he boasted that this year's turnout in the tent was the biggest yet. There was nothing elitist about it, he insisted: "We have farmers, tradespeople, clerical, administrative workers - all walks of life."
And to underline the point, referring to last night's fundraiser for the party's Galway West organisation, he joked: "Tonight we have an elite outing for €15 a head." Unlikely as it seems, there are people in Ireland that Bertie hasn't shaken hands with yet. But he eliminated a few more yesterday, including three women from Salthill, who were left breathless in his wake.
"Would you believe, I've never met him before?" said Irene Ford. "He's better looking in person, and taller," suggested Emer Coppinger. "I reckon they spend more on his makeup than they're letting on," said the third member of the trio, Kay Havelin.
Julia McAndrew was probably more representative of the Taoiseach's hand-shaking record. Greeted alongside her Czech-born daughter Eliska, she confessed afterwards that she'd met Bertie a couple of weeks ago when he opened a school in Galway.
And Phil Lundy from Oranmore, an early entrant for the best-dressed lady competition, in a black-and-pink feather hat, was being gladhanded by the Taoiseach for at least the third time.
In fact, sometimes it's an effort to avoid being Bertied. After a near miss with his flight path, one woman joked to her companion: "I couldn't shake hands with him or I'd be shot." Pressed by an eavesdropping Irish Times, she declined to elaborate, or identify herself.
John O'Donoghue was still dispensing tips in his capacity as Minister for Sport. But Eskimo Jack, whom he advised journalists to back "on the nose" (to win), melted in the steamy conditions and could only finish third. Meanwhile, Government Chief Whip Tom Kitt joined the trickle of cabinet members arriving, and promptly denied having any role in rounding up the rest of them for tomorrow and Thursday, the big days of the fundraising operation.
Mr Kitt instead issued a mild rebuke to Fine Gael for breaking the convention of cross-party horse-ownership by founding a single-party syndicate (whose horse ran on Monday). It was a dangerous precedent to have "party animals", he said, sounding almost serious. Today, party animals of the two-legged variety will be flocking to the canvass village. And anyone looking for a sure winner should back the Fianna Fáil finance committee, on the nose.
