Corofin native wins vaughanshoes.ie ladies day at Ballinrobe Racecourse

Karen Leonard a retail sales assistant from Corofin in County Galway was celebrity judge Mandy Maher’s stand-out winner at the vaughanshoes.ie ladies day at Ballinrobe Racecourse on Monday June 24. Karen collected the top prize of €1,500 cash and each of the nine runners-up received a goody bag to the value of €150.
 
Karen bought her navy dress with floral embellishment from ASOS and wore the dress back-to-front to showcase the floral patterns. She added a v-neck to the dress and a red ribbon as a waistband. Her bespoke headpiece was designed by Galway-based milliner Caithriona King around the dress. Karen paired the outfit with a pair of block heel red sandals from New Look.
 
On winning the vaughanshoes.ie ladies day, Karen Leonard said: “I was so shocked when Mandy called out my name. I work in fashion, it’s my passion, I love coming to the races and taking part in ladies days so it’s a dream to win the vaughanshoes.ie ladies day at Ballinrobe this evening. Everyone looks fantastic, it’s a huge honour to win - I’m over the moon.”
 
Donal Vaughan from vaughanshoes.ie said: “Sponsoring ladies day at Ballinrobe Racecourse is the perfect fit for us. Once again, we were overwhelmed with the turnout - it was brilliant to see all the ladies who made such an effort to dress-up and come to Ballinrobe this evening. Congratulations to Karen and all the finalists - they looked fantastic.”
 
Judge, Mandy Maher, owner of Catwalk Modelling Agency and stylist with Ireland AM, remarked: I had a brilliant evening at vaughanshoes.ie ladies day at Ballinrobe racecourse. I was blown away by the style. The attention to detail and the colour was exceptional and the headpieces particularly stood out for me, showing casing the amazing milliners we have in Ireland, particularly in the West of Ireland. I really struggled to short-list the 10 finalists from the huge turnout but I thought Karen ticked all the boxes. Her outfit was elegant and fresh and she really stood out for me.”
 
John Flannelly, Ballinrobe Racecourse Manager said: “The vaughanshoes.ie Ladies Day is one of the most popular race meetings of our season. We thank them for their continued sponsorship – it’s a great partnership for Ballinrobe. We were overwhelmed by the turnout, I hope everyone had a great night.”
  
The ten finalists including the winner were:
 
Karen Leonard WINNER
Corofin, Galway
 
Katie Curran
Athenry, Galway
 
Denise Manning
Oranmore, Galway
 
Julie Caulfield
Wexford
 
Michelle Manning
Ballinasloe, Galway
 
Aoife McDonagh
Headford, Galway
 
Mary Butler
Galway City
 
Fiona Coleman
Shrule, Mayo
 
Sarah McDermott
Newbridge, Kildare
 
Susan Mannion
Castlebar, Mayo