Two lucky ladies won a day out at Royal Ascot Ladies Day courtesy of a competition by a Croydon-based millinery.

Soulla Neophytou, 43, and her friend Helen Erodotou went to Ascot for the very first time last Thursday.

Hatz, in Allders handed out the free tickets and offered the winners a chance to choose any hat to hire for the day.

Mrs Neophytou, of Coulsdon, said: “I’d always wanted to go but never got round to it.

“I was really shocked to have won because I only entered on the last day.”

Mrs Neophytou said it was not hard to choose a hat for the occasion.

“Monique [one of the shop owners] was really good and very helpful,” she added.

It was a lucky day in more ways than one for the mum-of-two because four of the six horses she bet on won their races.

She said: “It was really good fun and I’d love to do it again.”

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