Recently I had the honour of being asked to judge ladies fashion for the magic millions horse racing carnival on both ladies day and also the main race day. I was very excited when I accepted the invite but after speaking to a few people I became a bit apprehensive as I was told I would require the services of a body guard as I could very likely receive a stiletto to the back of the head if I did not pick the right person!!!!!!

For the week leading into ladies day I studied up on my race day fashions so by the time the day came around I was feeling confident as to what I had to look for in order to pick the most well dressed lady on the day. I also had to choose best classic race wear, best hat and best dressed male.

Ladies day arrived and after dressing in what I hoped would be appropriate fashion for a judge; I proceeded to the judging area and eased my nerves with a cold glass of bubbly!!!!! I then judged the various sections with 2 other judges and luckily we all agreed on most things and the young lady we eventually chose looked absolutely stunning and was very deserving of the award. I found judging best hat a bit harder considering the only hats I tend to wear are of the baseball kind whilst I pound the pavements in my running sessions. Unluckily there were no baseball hats to choose from.

Saturday- the main race day arrived and I was lucky enough to have some wonderful people help me out with my fashion for the day. Jason Greche a very talented designer from Melbourne dressed me in an absolutely beautiful dress and Leonie from Hats by the hundred located at pacific fair shopping centre lent me a lovely fascinator and I was feeling confident that I would not have anybody looking down their nose at the way I was dressed whilst I was judging them!!!! There were many beautiful and classic dresses to choose but I felt the one stand out was by far the best and as it happened all 3 of us judges picked the same winner. Apparently I was criticised in the local paper by a lady who unluckily did not get chosen as a winner on the day and her criticism of me was as follows- what would some silly hockey player know about fashion!!!!! And you know what she is probably spot on with that comment as I do spend most of my days running around a hockey field dressed in Lycra!!!!!!!

I had a wonderful time judging the fashions and the magic millions really is one of Australia's main attractions every year and I am looking forward to hopefully getting an invite back next year as I need to try to win back some money on the horses as I was definitely short of luck and winners this year!!!!!

I will be heeding my own fashion advice and will make sure when I am playing hockey for my country that my shoes and my stick bag match!!!!