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Musselburgh celebrate successful Flat season

Racegoers cheer on the runners and riders during Stobo Castle Ladies Day at Musselburgh Racecourse
Image: Racegoers cheer on the runners and riders during Stobo Castle Ladies Day at Musselburgh

Larger crowds and bigger prize money marked out the 2014 Flat season as Musselburgh's most successful to date.

Over 17 meetings from April to October attendances were up by 14% from 44,962 to 51,358, while prize money rose by £121,000 from £1.07 million to £1.2 million, averaging £70,000 at each meeting.

Highlights of the season included Musselburgh’s first ever £100,000 race, the William Hill Scottish Sprint Cup, and the sponsors have reinforced the value of Scotland’s richest sprint event with a further three year deal.

The Stobo Castle Ladies Day celebrated its 10th anniversary and sold out in record time with all tickets gone three months ahead of the June meeting which attracted a modern day record attendance of 9000.

Earlier the Flat season had kicked off with Musselburgh making sporting history by staging the first turf meeting to be held on Good Friday, which together with the well-established Easter Sunday fixture pulled in almost 8000 racing fans.

The Edinburgh Cup meeting in June had a record £143,000 in prize money a 6200 crowd built on this meeting’s growing popularity as a key summer race day on the Scottish calendar.

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With Referendum polling fever at its height in September, Musselburgh again took the initiative and with sponsor Ladbrokes staged a one-off charity race, the Ladbrokes Referendum Race. Yes We Can in the Yes campaign colours pipped Better Together’s Nae Thanks and £800 was raised for local charity Cash for Kids.

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Musselburgh Racecourse general manager, Bill Farnsworth, said: “We try hard to keep things fresh and to innovate and come up with new ways of making Musselburgh a must-visit for racing fans. With both increased attendances and prize money, we have had a successful Flat campaign and are now focussed on replicating that when the jumps season gets under way next month.

“The Scottish Sprint Cup is now firmly established as one of the best sprint features in UK racing and we are delighted William Hill shares that view and has signed up for a further three years. We keep saying Stobo Castle Ladies Day improves each year but it’s true and the 2014 meeting was without doubt our most successful to date.

“The racecourse team at Musselburgh all work as one and it is very satisfying to see their efforts come to fruition and be rewarded with more people through the gate, bigger prize money and a better quality of horses from returning trainers who have East Lothian firmly on their radar.”

The East Lothian course is now preparing for the launch of the 2014/15 National Hunt season on Thursday 6 November and the 11 meeting season boasts prize money of more than £600,000.

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