A BUMPER crowd basked in warm sunshine on Ladies Day – Musselburgh's big day of the year on Saturday – and racecourse boss Bill Farnsworth is determined to make it even better.
After Resplendent Light had beaten Sundowner by a whisker in the main race – the totescoop6 Tradesman's Derby – Farnsworth declared his aim to build the mile-and-a-half event into a £50,000 contest.
The pair may well meet again in a mile-and-a
-half handicap at Royal Ascot next week – when they could be joined by another Saturday winner, Record Breaker.
Resplendent Light held the late thrust of Sundowner by a short head, much to the delight of the bookies. The winner was a 16-1 shot and was a rare runner on the East Lothian track for Berkshire trainer Willie Muir while the runner-up represented Newmarket handler Gerrard Butler.
Record Breaker battled back gamely in the style of a typical Mark Johnston inmate to regain the lead inside the final furlong of the stayers handicap after being headed by Sir Duke.
Spin Cycle also booked his ticket to the Royal meeting when beating three other previous winners to take the opening juvenile conditions event and now heads for the Norfolk Stakes at the Royal Ascot fixture.
Trainer Bryan Smart, his jockey Tom Eaves and owner Sheikh Rashid bin Mohammed completed a double when the hard-pulling Prince Hamlet stayed on much better than many onlookers expected to win the seven- furlong handicap by seven lengths.
Yorkshire trainer Richard Fahey was disappointed when Deadly Encounter was unplaced in the opener, but gained some compensation when Sunnyside Tom made all the running under Paul Hanaghan to hold the favourite Stellite in the mile handicap.
Princess Ellis also led from start to finish in the sprint handicap and the bookies got a perfect end to the day when the hot-favourite Silver Seeker could finish only third of the five runners in the concluding apprentice handicap over two miles.
The gelding made much of the running, but was headed inside the final quarter of a mile by both Princess Ellis and his market rival, Living on a Prayer, but Jim Goldie's seven-year-old rallied to get back on top in the last 100 yards and win by a length.
The fixture had been sold out for some weeks with a crowd of 8275 – some 7679 of them paying customers – enjoying the sunshine and some exciting racing. "It's been a great atmosphere and the ladies have come decked out in their finest to enjoy the sunshine," said Farnsworth.
"We will be going all out to increase the prize to £50,000 in the near future and make it a real attraction.
"It's a great boost when we hear that several of (the] winners are off to Royal Ascot and shows that we are really are beginning to attract the better class animals here."
The full article contains 490 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
