The heat is on and dress codes eased but this glorious day belongs to Rob Hornby

A funny thing happened on the July course at Newmarket on Saturday. A crowd of people were let through the turnstiles wearing no ties, no jackets, in some cases only half a vertical expanse of trouser, and nobody died.

Even in the premier areas, where open-neck shirts and jacketlessness are usually treated with the same trepidation that was once reserved for leprosy, the presence of a decent pair of shorts and a bit of short-sleeved linen didn't induce either apoplexy in the racecourse security team or a full-scale riot on the lawns.

Perhaps this is the way forward: let people dress themselves; make sure your sartorially bizarre suggestions that they should dress 'as if attending a wedding' are only suggestions; avoid asking overweight middle-aged men to squeeze into suits that last fitted them in the Middle Ages; don't close off all points of exit for body heat, using ties and trouser legs and other instruments of torture; above all, do take into account the weather forecast; and what you may get is something like we saw on July Cup day.