There was plenty of courage on display at Fairyhouse yesterday - and that was just in the Best Dressed Lady competition, writes Joe Humphreys.
Despite squally showers and softening conditions, many entrants prepared themselves as though for a summer wedding.
Hats as big as those at Royal Ascot abounded, although that of the winner - Dr Fiona Grant, a GP from Sandyford, Co Dublin - was a less fussy affair. "It's an oldie," she said. "But it works."
Indeed, it did. It helped her scoop a €2,000 voucher for Carl Scarpa and a whiskey decanter after catching the eye of a model-judge, Ms Vivienne Connolly.
Courage of a different kind could be seen later in the parade ring when Mrs Carmel McKiernan, owner of Winning Dream, the third-place finisher in the big race, was sent tumbling when her horse got spooked by the crowds and kicked out, connecting with her head.
"There's a bit of a lump there all right," said the Rathcoole woman as she rubbed the place where her hat used to be. "But he's not the first horse to kick me. The last one nearly broke my thigh bone."
Tough nuts, these racing folk. Of that there's no doubt. Jim Culloty is another example. The Killarney-born jockey earned his silks the hard way, emigrating to England at 18 and working his way up from point-to-point riding.
Yesterday he landed his first Powers Gold Label Irish Grand National with the Dessie Hughes-trained Timbera at 11/1.
Kerry-born owners Mrs Josephine and Mr Ted Breen, along with Lord Jim of Lewis Road, as the jockey is better known in his home town, received their prizes from the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, who today begins a short holiday - in where else but Kerry.