What will win? I ask. “It’s the best outfit. In Punchestown back in April, I actually saw the winner in the carpark on the way in.”

Marietta Doran admits that the decision was not quite that easy in the end, but for her, that lady, walking in from the carpark, set the bar and she set it high.

“It was just the most fabulous outfit!”

Marietta is a judge for this year’s Athlone Town Centre sponsored Friday’s Most Stylish at Galway races and she cannot hide her excitement.

“The Friday is a little bit more relaxed. It’s evening time, you’re dressed up and after racing, after the competition, you can go on and enjoy yourself. There’s a real weekend vibe.

I like the eclectic look that works on the Friday, things that are a bit different. I mean, you could have a girl in a co-ord - shorts and matching top with a lovely headpiece.”

Career in fashion TV

I ask Marietta how she ended up in this line of work.

“I’ve always been interested in fashion and I always wanted to be on television.

“Bill Keating out in RTÉ at that time said to me, ‘You need to find the subject that you can talk about, then you’ll be fine in front of the camera’ and I thought, ‘Well I can talk about fashion, it’s as simple as that’.

So I worked for years on Off the Rails doing their makeovers when Caroline Morahan and Pamela Flood were presenting.”

A lucky break put Marietta on her current path when Pamela phoned Marietta to ask her to fill in on a job.

“This job was a makeover for the RTÉ racing programme for the Monday night Punchestown preview with Nina Carberry and Katie Walsh,” she explains.

“The idea was that we’d go shopping, they would come on the show in their civvies and then at the end of the show, they would come back in these gorgeous outfits and do their interview.

In the midst of that the director, Denise, who also directed Channel 4 racing, asked me would I do an interview on the telly to talk about the outfits. Now the first thing that comes to my mind was, ‘What am I going to wear?’ but I had an outfit in the car.

With Off the Rails, you learned to always have an outfit in the car as you’d never know if you’d need to look different again.”

Marietta was asked then to come to a race meeting in the Curragh. That was 2005; pretty soon she was judging the competitions.

She laughs infectiously as she tells me; “I was the first person to ask, ‘How much was that dress and where’d you buy it?’

I actually had a director say to me, ‘Marietta, is that a bit forward a thing to ask a woman on television?

And I turned around and said, ‘That’s the first thing every woman wants to know – where’d you buy it and how much did it cost?’ and agh I’d always give them a heads up, you know”.

1. Style is eternal

“I don’t ever say you can’t do this, or don’t do that because that very thing could be the winning outfit. Now you’ve got ladies wearing jumpsuits, trouser suits, a lot more tailoring. You might have styles coming back but in different colours or different prints.”

2. Wear colour “There’s enough darkness in the world. At the races, for a winning outfit, colour pops so the judges will always see it.”

3. A head piece is a must

“It can’t just be a hairstyle or a tiny little clip - that won’t cut it. It is head to toe glamour.”

4. Consider your coat

“If the weather is not great and you want to look appropriate, Marietta advises that the coat should be as nice as the outfit.“If it’s chilly but not raining, wear the coat on the shoulders so the judges can actually see the outfit.”

5. Break in your shoes

“I would say to the ladies heading to Galway that haven’t been in the high heels to just be conscious. If you are out of practice, get back into practice. Footwear is important as you look at someone’s eyes and then straight to their feet.”

6. Grooming

On tan, Marietta is a big fan, and although it’s a very personal decision, she advises that less is more, which also applies to make-up.

7. Make it your own

It’s not a brand, it’s how you put it together. “I don’t care what you’re wearing, high end or high street doesn’t matter. It’s about the look. And for some reason, when you do see the winning look, it’s like a Eureka moment.”

Judging with Marietta will be Athlone Town Centre general manager Shirley Delahunt as well as RTÉ’s Bláthnaid Treacy.

Taking place on Friday, 29 July from 4pm (although Marietta will be there from 3pm), this year’s big prize is a shop and stay break; a €2,000 Athlone Town Centre gift card, a luxury two night break in the four star Sheraton Athlone Hotel and a gorgeous piece of jewellery courtesy of Fields Jewellers.

If your preference for a day at the races is Ladies Day (“proper”) on Thursday or the less hectic Saturday, The Galmont Hotel has your nightly entertainment sorted.

Thursday 28 July: Dec Pierce will perform his Block Rockin’ Beats. Think of the biggest dance anthems, Breathe by The Prodigy, Insomnia by Faithless and Beastie Boys’ Sabotage. That is if you can still walk in your shoes!

Saturday 30 July: Aslan will perform in the hotel’s Inis Mor Ballroom. Tickets are available on Ticketmaster; Dec Pierce €25 and Aslan €42.