French and Irish visitors target Musselburgh’s Sell Out Ladies Day
The fashionable Stobo Castle Ladies Day will have an extra measure of “ooh la la” on Saturday when veteran French jockey Gérald Mossé makes his first visit to the East Lothian course.
A former Melbourne Cup and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner who is also part of an elite group of jockeys who have ridden more than 500 winners in Hong Kong, Mossé will be on board top weight Indian Blessing in the £40,000 feature race The Stobo Castle Gold Cup.
Trained by Lambourn-based Ed Walker, the mare was third in Grade 1 company at Kentucky’s Keeneland track in October following other 2018 outings at Saratoga and a win at Hamburg.
Irish trainer Joseph O’Brien has his first runners at the East Lothian venue and is double-handed in the main event with Wisdom Mind and Cava with rare Musselburgh visitor Hayley Turner down to ride Cava. Richard Hannon, last year’s winning trainer with Pepita, is represented by Red Starlight, twice runner-up in Listed grades at Doncaster and Ascot.
The afternoon’s action gets underway at 1.40pm with the EBFstallions.com Edinburgh Castle Stakes which has a habit of showcasing some decent two year olds, including 2011 winner Frederick Engels which went on to bag the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot. Richard Fahey, the winning trainer in this event in 2016 and 2017, saddles My Kinda Day, a highly-regarded colt who cost 135,000 Euros.
In the 3.25 Gaynor Winyard Handicap, Hayley Turner, who has ridden two previous winners at Musselburgh, partners with recent Wetherby runner-up L’Un Deux Trois for Newmarket trainer Michael Bell, while Sir Mark Prescott sends up the Sheikh Juma Dalmook Al Maktoum owned Calling The Wind, which has won twice and placed second twice in its last four outings.
Musselburgh Racecourse general manager, Bill Farnsworth, said the forecast suggested Ladies Day would benefit from a lucky pocket of good weather after the wettest week in Musselburgh for a year.
He said: “We have had more rain in recent days than for a long time but Saturday would appear to be warm, mostly dry with a risk of a shower later in the day. The ground is soft but the track is in wonderful condition and in addition to all the traditional glitz and glamour of Ladies Day, we also have some excellent entries and first time visitors to serve up a feast of high quality racing.”
Admission tickets for Stobo Castle Ladies Day sold out last week, ensuring a 10,000 capacity crowd for Musselburgh’s premier raceday of the summer Flat season. Away from the turf, a full programme of fashion shows, music and entertainment is on the cards and celebrity DJs Edith Bowman and former Girls Aloud start Nicola Roberts will get the after-party underway.
A free shuttle bus service will run from Wallyford and Newcraighall railway stations and return racegoers to the stations post-racing.
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