MUSSELBURGH Racecourse launches its nine fixture winter jumps season this week, as they prepare for a New Years Day capacity crowd.
Back-to-back fixtures on Thursday and Friday 28-29 November herald the start of the jumps season at the popular East Lothian track.
With strong ticket sales for the traditional Virgin Bet New Year’s Day meeting, boss Bill Farnsworth is confidently looking forward to a repeat 6,500 sell-out, with additional covered tented facilities being added in case the weather fails to keep its part of the deal.
With two races featured on ITV1, highlights of the 1 January meeting are the £40,000 Virgin Bet Auld Reekie Handicap Chase and the equally competitive £30,000 Virgin Bet Hogmaneigh Handicap Hurdle.
General manager Farnsworth said: “We expect it will be another sell-out so the message is, if you want to welcome in 2025 in the most exciting fashion and plan to celebrate New Year with us at Musselburgh, buy your tickets in advance,”
The premier attraction of Musselburgh’s jumps season is the February favourite, the two day bet365 Scottish Cheltenham trials weekend on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 February.
Which is an important staging post for leading trainers looking to compete at the famous Cheltenham and Aintree festivals in the spring.
Musselburgh has hosted some great prospects over the years with many of the country’s top trainers happy to make the trip north to take on Scotland’s best home-trained horses.
So much so that the BHA have signalled that the £100,000 bet365 Scottish champion chase, which is currently a class 2 handicap chase, could be upgraded to a class 1 event if it continues to perform so well.
Bill Farnsworth added: “It is one of the season’s best quality two and a half mile handicap chases but it has to perform at that level for three consecutive years.
It would be great to have that sitting alongside our other grade 1 race over that weekend, the bet365 Scottish triumph hurdle, and we will be doing our best over the next few seasons to make that a reality.
“With the £75,000 bet365 edinburgh national handicap race our feature race on the Sunday, we have again lined up a strong programme over two days which gives our race goers a genuine opportunity to get up close to future Cheltenham and Aintree champions.”
The farmers race day on Sunday 16 February and the go north finals race day on Friday 21 March, which features four finals with £30,000 prize money for each, round off the National Hunt programme at Musselburgh.
For full fixture details and to book tickets, visit www.musselburgh-racecourse.co.uk
