Musselburgh Racecourse celebrated a record 9,000 attendance at its annual Stobo Castle Ladies Day meeting last Saturday with news that William Hill has renewed its sponsorship of the Scottish Sprint Cup for the next three years.
Subject to fixture list planning approval by the BHA, Britain’s biggest bookmakers are strengthening their sporting sponsorship commitments in Scotland by adding the £100,000 five-furlong race to their portfolio until 2017.
Racegoers enjoyed thousands of bottles of bubbly and cocktails of every colour and description and racecourse bosses popped champagne corks themselves with news that the UK’s leading bookmaker had renewed its support of Scotland’s fastest and richest Flat race.
Musselburgh Racecourse general manager, Bill Farnsworth, said: “The Scottish Sprint Cup is Musselburgh’s flagship race and the continued support of William Hill means a huge amount to us as a progressive and aspirational racecourse. The £100,000 William Hill Scottish Sprint Cup and the William Hill Ayr Gold Cup, which is staged in September, are an excellent double act which are the standard bearers of Flat racing in Scotland.
“Scottish Racing continues to make strong progress and we are keenly looking forward to developing this brilliant race day with William Hill and Stobo Castle so that it remains a sell-out capacity event for many years to come.”
Radio Forth presenter Grant Stott was Master of Ceremonies at the Stage Bar Marquee where the finals of the Fashion in the Field competitions reached an exciting climax. Ashley Stewart from Edinburgh was crowned the 2014 Debenhams Queen of Style and collected a £3000 cash prize, and proving she was heads above thousands of others, Dot Anderson won the Most Stylish Hat competition.
Professional golfer Lloyd Saltman showed he was as comfortable on the catwalk as the fairway when he was selected at the best dressed man at Ladies Day, picking up the King of Style prize.
The East Lothian racecourse estimated that racegoers spent more than £800,000 on their outfits for the biggest fashion day in Scottish sport, taking in to account the cost of dresses, hats, fascinators, handbags, shoes, accessories and flowers.
Musselburgh Racecourse commercial manager, Sarah Montgomery, said: “Each year we say Ladies Day can’t get any better but it does and its popularity seems to keep growing. It was our largest ever attendance in the modern age and we could have sold hundreds of more tickets if we had the capacity.
“The effort and thought that went in to the outfits worn by racegoers was truly outstanding and Stobo Castle Ladies Day is established as the place to see and be seen during the summer sporting season. Tickets for 2015 Ladies Day went on sale on Monday and they are already flying out the door and we are gathering our breath and getting ready to do it all again next year.”
Check out Musselburgh Racecourse’s Facebook page for pictures of East Lothian’s biggest fashion event www.facebook.com/MusselburghRacecourse
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
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