Ladies Day at Musselburgh moving to Saturday next year
Musselburgh’s Ladies Day Moves to Super Saturday Slot
Musselburgh Racecourse has announced it is moving its annual Ladies Day meeting to a Saturday slot and it will be combined with the £100,000 Scottish Sprint Cup.
The 2014 Stobo Castle Ladies Day, which celebrates its 10th birthday, will take place on Saturday, 14 June 2014, and tickets go on sale today.
The prestigious Edinburgh Cup meeting will continue to be held on Derby Day, 7 June 2014, and prize money is expected to increase from this year’s £130,000 total.
The East Lothian course said it wanted to create two Super Summer Saturday meetings which would be the focal point of its Flat season and which attract the top horses, trainers and capacity crowds.
Musselburgh’s Ladies Day has been a sell-out event since it was first launched in 2004 and combining it with Scotland’s richest five furlong sprint feature would boost the fixture’s must-attend status even further.
The course said it had the ability to increase the capacity towards the 10,000 mark which would be a modern day attendance record for Musselburgh.
Musselburgh Racecourse general manager, Bill Farnsworth, said: “The Edinburgh Cup is always run on Derby Day but with that moving back a week to 7 June, it would mean next year we would have been staging three big meetings in only eight days, and that could be a big strain on resources.
“To maintain the quality and appeal of our premier Flat fixtures we’ve decided to combine Ladies Day with the Scottish Sprint Cup and settled on a Saturday date for what will be a hugely popular meeting.
“This means we will have two consecutive Super Summer Saturday meetings which will be the biggest racedays ever staged at Musselburgh. Larger crowds, improved facilities, increased prize money and a better quality of racing will give us two massive events which will be the centre-piece of our 2014 season.
“It is a case of playing to our strengths and these changes enable us to improve the quality of horse racing and the visitor experience. We have to constantly innovate to make our meetings stand out from the crowd and offer something different and by doing this we are making sure Musselburgh maintains its reputation as one of the UK’s leading racecourses.”
- Tickets for 2014 Edinburgh Cup Raceday and Stobo Castle Ladies Day will be available online from today. For full details and to book visit www.musselburgh-racecourse.co.uk