A look back at the Summer season so far

It’s been a long hot summer, and the temperature has been fast & furious on our racetrack over the last few fixtures!

First up was our Luca’s Ice-Cream Family Raceday, which proved once again to be a real crowd-pleaser for all ages. Whilst the kids enjoyed pony rides, face painting & an array of fairground shows, they also got a fantastic introduction into the world of horse-racing via the pony races we held before racing. And what a fixture to watch! Local trainer Jim Goldie, fresh off his 1000th winner earlier in the week, notched up another three victories to add to his glittering tally. Ana Emaraaty and Jm Jhingree were courtesy of jockey Paul Mulrennan, with up & coming apprentice Lauren Young steering home the third winner, Trojan Sun. Another good performance to note was Andrew Mullen’s surprising win on Sovereign Ocean, Iain Jardine’s 2yo colt, who defied odds of 33/1!

Whilst Goodwood proved not to be as ‘Glorious’ as promised with their monsoon-like downpours, we stayed nice & dry at our only evening fixture of the year, the 90’s Friday Night At The Races! The after-work crowd partied hard into the night, whilst groups of friends sang their hearts out to Belfast Brunch & Co and their fantastic karaoke party.  Jockeys Sam James and Joe Fanning both had good reason to celebrate too, with each managing a treble on the night! Sam rode home Blooming Legend and Mersea, the two favourites of the night who took home the spoils, but if you’d backed Joe, you’d have been right in the money! Philip Kirby’s mare Unthinkable won at 16/1 and the pair followed up quickly in the next race with Red Force One storming home at 18/1! Definitely a pairing that requires careful consideration for future Musselburgh visits!

Ladies Day is the jewel in Musselburgh’s crown, and our biggest & busiest raceday of the year. All year long, our office team religiously plead with to the sunshine gods to smile down on us & this year, it worked! A warm, fair day saw everyone don their finest & most elegant outfits, with hats & fascinators pinned tightly in place to avoid the refreshing coastal breeze we’re blessed with at Musselburgh. A sell out crowd enjoyed our fashion show, Style Awards, an array of food & beverages, some fantastic live music including an after-racing party with Marvin Humes, and of course, seven thrilling flat races.

With some tasty prize money on offer, we saw trainers from as far as Lambourn & Newmarket make the trip north to compete with our local contenders. Falcon Nine opened the card by following up his Carlisle win from four days previous with another nice victory. The Mohammed Tabti & Iain Jardine combo certainly seem to be getting a sweet tune from the Ursa Major Racing gelding, demonstrating that the change of trainer this season was indeed the right move. Archie Watson saw Mission Classified get his neck in front with Hollie Doyle pressing on to take the Class 2 5f race. In our third race, favourite Homestrait was easily guided home by jockey Ben Robinson, and he later followed up with Middleham Park’s Ziggy’s Triton, giving Ben a decisive double for the day! Our feature race, the Champagne Pommery Brut Royal Gold Cup Handicap was won by Grant Tuer’s filly Bellarchi, beating the favourite by ¾ of a length. Simple Star picked up the 6th, under Sam James, and the Amateur Jockey’s Handicap saw Amy Collier enjoy a nice win with Patontheback, who loved our faster surface!

For now, we have two fixtures remaining in August before we head for our September weekend – hosting the Oktoberfest Raceday on Saturday 13th September and new Student Raceday in partnership with Dropkick Murphy’s on Sunday 14th September.