Ally Mangan announced as inaugural winner of the Randox Grand National Festival Women in Business Award

Ally Mangan is today announced as the very first winner of The Randox Grand National Festival Women in Business Award.

The Randox Grand National Festival Women in Business Award was established to honour the creativity, resilience, and ambition of women-led businesses across the Liverpool City Region and offers one outstanding local businesswoman a breakthrough opportunity – to become an official partner of The Randox Grand National Festival in 2026.

With a large number of strong entries to choose from, and after a rigorous process, Vicky Gosling OBE was presented with a shortlist of contenders to choose from and Loved By Ally came out on top.

The mother and grandmother, who hails from nearby Formby, established Loved By Ally during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. Having sadly recently lost her mother, Ally turned to her love of vintage clothes for comfort and what began as a single Instagram page (loved.byally) has now transformed into a thriving vintage clothes business at lovedbyally.com.

Speaking on her delight at being the inaugural winner of The Randox Grand National Festival Women in Business Award, Ally said: “It’s very overwhelming and I almost feel like an imposter! I absolutely love what I do as vintage fashion is a real passion of mine and it doesn’t ever really feel like work.

“I love the fact that Aintree is all about community and I know they really believe in giving something back to community and that is something that I absolutely love.

“Ladies Day is just everything about Liverpool and the community. I know it’s also about the horses and the racing, but it’s such a big thing in Liverpool. I’ve loved looking at over the years how people get their outfits together and making themselves look fabulous, so to enter for this award just seemed like a natural fit to me.

“My brother has a long association with Aintree and is now over in Germany doing dressage, so the racecourse has always been very much in our family life for such a long time. My dad loved the racing there too, so it seemed the natural thing to enter the competition, but I never dreamed I would win.”

Paying tribute to her late mother, Ally added: “It is because of mum that I started doing this. My mum absolutely loved charity shops. We have a large family, and we’d have parties where we would turn up having spent a lot on our outfits and mum would turn up in an absolutely gorgeous dress that she’d found for £2.50 and would look amazing.

“When I lost her, you have to do all the awful things like sorting out her clothes and it was a real eye-opener that virtually everything in her wardrobe was preloved and she always looked fabulous. That really inspired me and what I have set up with Loved By Ally feels like a real gift from my mum.

“She would be so proud and it’s my biggest regret that she is not here to see me win this award.”

On the rise in popularity of preloved clothing, Mangan said: “It used to be the case that people would be a bit ashamed to say they’d been in the charity shop but now people are more ashamed to say they bought something on the High Street. It’s more socially acceptable to shop sustainably, which is very encouraging when you think what is saved going into landfill. It’s great for us and great for our children as well.

“I also love with vintage clothing that every piece has its own history. You never finish going to an event where someone else is wearing the same dress or whatever, which is really nice too.”

Looking forward to the months ahead leading up to the 2026 Randox Grand National Festival (please see notes below for full details), Ally concluded: “I am so excited, and I’ll do my best!

“I am really looking forward to the Randox Grand National Weights Lunch as it sounds so interesting and such a great day. St George’s Hall is one of the gorgeous buildings we have here in Liverpool.

“I am just so excited to be the first winner of this award – it is something new for me and something new for Aintree.

“The City of Liverpool has a spirit like no other and that is what makes Aintree so special.”

Dickon White, Regional Director North West at The Jockey Club, said: “We received a very strong entry for the first Randox Grand National Festival Women in Business Award, but Ally’s submission really stood out to us.

“Her business is very much a product of the local community and has a strong commitment to sustainability – two values which are hugely important to us here at Aintree.

“We are really excited to be working alongside Ally and look forward to collaborating closely with her in the build-up to the 2026 Randox Grand National Festival.”

Originally shared by Aintree Racecourse. Photo credit: The Jockey Club.