MUSSELBURGH Racecourse staged the first running of the new SkyBet Super Series, with the new initiative deemed a huge success following a thrilling day of action at the Scottish track on Sunday afternoon which featured tips by OLBG.
The Sunday Series is a new venture for horse racing which seeks to inject prize money into some of the lesser races within the sport, including the likes of sprint handicaps and nursery events. There is over £600,000 in prize money available across the Sunday Series, with prize money totalling over £183,000 for the Musselburgh fixture.
The highlight of the seven-race card was the impressive success of Rising Star in one of the feature races, the £30,600 Fillies’ Handicap which was shown live on ITV Racing. The three-year-old justified 5/6 favouritism with a battling success for Marco Botti in the contest under Ben Curtis with a length and a half-success. The progressive type wore down the gutsy Gometra Ginty close home and looks capaboe of further improvement going forward.
There was a local winner to proceedings earlier on the card when Tommy G recorded a game victory in the 4.20pm, the Sunday Series Apprentice Training Handicap for Uplawmoor trainer Jim Goldie. The 13/2 shot beenfited from a fine front-running ride by talented claimer Gianluca Sanna to score by a head margin and Goldie now has eyes on a £100,000 Sunday Series bonus.
The bonus will go to the owners of any horse that wins a race at each of the three venues in the £600,000 Sky Bet Sunday Series. Round two is at Haydock on August 8, with the final leg at Sandown two weeks later. The prize will be split if there is more than one winner.
Elsewhere on the card, jockey Ben Curtis completed a double following the narrow success of Glasses Up, who landed the concluding Sunday Series Stayers Handicap, whilst the biggest price winner of the day was 25/1 chance Mytilda. Trained by Phillip Makin, she lost all chance at the start of the valuable Super Sprint at Newbury last time out, but bounced back to form in fine style here with an impressive success. This was her first win at her sixth time at the track.
Other highlights included Edward Cornelius’ (13/2) win in the opening maiden. He kept on strongly to score for Keith Dalgleish in smart fashion, whilst Lion Tower ustified 44/1 favouritism in the Sunday Series Handicap.
A bumper crowd were there to see all the action at Musselburgh and to enjoy the first of what promises to be an exciting summer with the new Sunday Series.
