Thank Goodness for the Rain: A Summer of Racing at Musselburgh

We opened our 2026 Flat season with a real bang! Our Easter Saturday had a super turn out, with the racing on the track as good as I can recall at Musselburgh!

High-quality action, great variety and some fiercely competitive races kept the crowd on the edge of their seats, and we were proud to be able to debut our newest Class 1 Listed race, the Goliath Cup. The race transferred to Musselburgh following its previous incarnation as the Further Flight Stakes at Nottingham and we boosted the prize money to £80,000 which attracted some of the best horses in running. In form trainer Karl Burke’s Al Qareem took the spoils, with heroic jockey Clifford Lee steering him gamely past the line in only his second ride back after recovering from a broken neck in a shocking motorbike crash back in October!

We also attracted strong fields in our Virgin Bet Queen’s Cup (won by Team Player) and one of the fastest 5f’s in the North, the Scottish Sprint Cup, won this year by the Barron’s beautiful grey gelding, Pilgrim. My eyecatcher of the day though had to be Adonius, the Rebecca Menzies juvenile, who won on his debut. He has since followed up with two more wins, one here at Musselburgh again & another in a high-quality race at the Chester, plus close seconds at Glorious Goodwood & in York’s Ebor Festival. Could a trip stateside see him bag a hefty prize this autumn? Definitely one to watch! He certainly seems to like our tight track so hopefully we see more of him. 

Our team also managed to host not one, but TWO Sky Bet Sunday Series fixtures this spring. We regularly host the opener of the Series, which is televised by ITV on a handful of Sunday tea-times across the summer, but after a couple of very wet weeks, Ayr unfortunately became waterlogged, so we offered to host the event in their stead. This meant our team had to rally to organise a full raceday from scratch in just six days, and I have to say, everyone pulled together, got stuck in and did a brilliant job! Across these two days, Jim Goldie’s Montezuma finally got his Musselburgh win after hitting the crossbar twice here, and fan favourites Persuasion, Bellarchi and Ziggy’s Triton each managed to notch up another course win. 

Up next, was our Edinburgh Cup raceday, which is held annually on the same Saturday as the Epsom Derby, combining the thrill & prestige of a British Classic with our elite Scottish twist! The Class 2 Edinburgh Cup went the way of Michael Bell, who brought his Space Blues gelding Blues And Royals all the way from Newmarket to land the high-value prize. We kept the regal theme going with winners from Royalty Bay and Wee Mary, although her namesake’s race, the prestigious Queen of Scots Fillies Listed stakes, was won by Circe, a lovely Richard Hannon filly, named for the Greek goddess in Homer’s Odyssey epic.  

We have never missed this rain so much as during July, when our irrigation system decided to pack in. Usually, the ground would have been fine, softened by the consistent year-round mizzle we love to hate in Scotland. However, in the midst of a national heatwave, with not a cloud to be seen in the sky, it just wasn’t going to be safe for horses to run on, so we gloomily made the hard decision to abandon our Family Day – a staff favourite! There may not have been rain, but I can assure you, plenty of staff tears fell. It truly is devastating to lose a raceday, especially one where our target audience is children, but safety is always the most important aspect, so it was the correct, albeit painful, decision. 

This year, Ladies Day had a decisively Scottish feel. The card bookended by a double win, courtesy of local trainer Linda Perrett, along with wins for Hawick based Ewan Whillans with Sure And Stedfast, and in-form Iain Jardine’s Johnny Concrete taking home the feature race spoils. Jardine is having a cracking summer, celebrating his best ever month in terms of Flat Winners this June, with Classy Clarets winning our 7f Handicap on the final day to take his grand tally for the month to 12!  

Our double header at the end of August saw two days of good field sizes, with lots of southern horses coming up to enjoy our lush track! Monday was a day for favourites, with John & Sean Quinn’s hot favourite The Mean Fiddler landing the opener, and another three short-priced runners also notching up wins. Philip Kirby’s mare Lady Banquet provided the best value of the day, running home to win at 9/1, but the Tuesday was more fruitful for those who like an eachway flutter. Jim Goldie saddled four runners in our feature race, the Portobello Cup, with his outsider Gallus Norman comfortably seeing off the competition. It could have been a very different race though, if Sandy Thomson’s Florida Dreams hadn’t gotten upset in the stalls & been withdrawn, having previously won here in a NH Flat race. 

With only four Flat racedays left this season, the next being Oktoberfest on Sat 12th September, our thoughts turn to our Championship stats. Jim Goldie may look to have an unbeatable lead in the Trainers’ Championship, but the jockey’s competition is much more open. Recent doubles from Andrew Mullen, Kevin Stott & a hat-trick for Jason Hart over the two August days should force reigning champ Paul Mulrennan to pull out all the stops to retain his title, promising us four more days of competitive racing & thrilling finishes on the Flat at Musselburgh!