BINOCULARS and straw hats were the order of the day at the start of York’s Dante festival, which launched the city’s 2011 racing season.

Flamboyant fashions also stood out with a number of women dressed to impress.

Christine Mulligan, of Harrogate, did not go unnoticed in a black and white spherical creation.

Christine, an occasional personal shopper, said she was keen to get a second wear out of her striking headwear, bought for last year’s Ebor.

“I’ve been coming here since I was 17 and I’ve always been into fashion so it’s part of the day for me.”

She said the style for the Dante Festival was elegant, with less flesh on show than later meets in the year.

And though she would usually wait until the August meets to wear a hat, the glamour of the royal wedding had encouraged her to hers again, she said.

Janet Topple, a former York resident now living in Canterbury, returns to York’s Dante Festival every year. The former pupil of Queen Anne’s Grammar School wore a Thai-made outfit, which won her first prize for Best Dressed Lady at Folkestone last June.

James Brennan, of York Racecourse, said 9,850 people attended the meet, six per cent more than in 2010.

He said: “We’re up and running and looking forward to the next two days.”

Peter Lawrence, father of missing York chef Claudia Lawrence, whose face was on posters and in racecards, used the occasion to urge people to help the campaign to find out what has happened to her.

“Someone will have seen her at some stage, someone will know her and someone will know what has happened to her,” he said.