Usual crowd out as J&B flirts with hip, young VIPs

Fifty thousand celebrities and revellers packed into Cape Town's Kenilworth Racecourse yesterday for one of the most glamorous events on the social calendar: the J&B Met.

And the event, where horse racing, money and fashion meet, was personified by a new breed of personalities mingling in the VIP tent.

Invitations to the hospitality marquees were, for the first time, directed primarily at hip and young movers and shakers.

The Sunday Times has established that the 500 coveted invitations were, for the most part, delivered to 18-to-25-year-old males mainly from Gauteng.

They mingled around the sushi bar, ate fresh oysters and treated themselves at a masseuse bar.

This was in line with marketing research and a decree issued by Brandhouse, the company that manages the J&B brand in South Africa.

Socialite Uyanda Mbuli was spotted in a gold and cream dress by JJ Schoeman while Somizi Mhlongo was sporting a cream lace suit with feathers by David Tlale.

Jen Su, the 5fm entertainment reporter, sneaked a pair of comfortable shoes into her bag to nurse tired feet.

Jeannie D changed into two Kluk CGDT dresses for a live SABC3 red carpet broadcast.

Event spokesman Eddy Cassar said VIP guests were mainly flown in from Gauteng.

Richard Brodrick of Brandhouse said the new batch of VIP guests included "some of the hottest current celebrities which we believe best represent South Africa as a whole and will appeal across all demographics".

But designer Gert Johan Coetzee was not impressed, saying: "I would have loved to see more high fashion - like more cropped tops, because that is the in thing right now."

Lee-Ann Liebenberg turned heads with a titillating outfit by Gavin Rajah which left little to the imagination.

But some of the usual faces, left out in the cold, were unimpressed. Radio presenter and television producer Alan Ford was furious at being denied access to the VIP area. "So, I am now too old and too white? It's absolutely disgusting," he fumed.

The event saw L'Ormarins Queen's Plate winner Gimmethegreenlight, owned by political stalwart Hassen Adams, come in in third place.

Race favourite Igugu, winner of last year's Vodacom Durban July, won the feature race of the day.

Igugu is owned by UAE politician and Arabian royal Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, the first cousin of Dubai's ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.