East Lothian: Musselburgh racecourse 'devastated' as heavy rain sees event cancelled

Days of heavy rain left the track 'waterlogged'.

A popular racecourse event in East Lothian has been called off after heavy rainfall.

Organisers of the raceday at Musselburgh said they are 'truly devastated' to cancel the Easter Saturday raceday but the waterlogged track left the grounds 'unfit for racing'.

Tickets can be transferred to another raceday or refunded, bosses said.

Posting on Facebook the team said: "The Virgin Bet Easter Saturday Raceday has been abandoned.We regret to inform you that we had 15mm of rain yesterday and a further 3.25mm of rain this morning, which has left the track unfit for racing due to areas of saturated ground. As a team, we are truly devastated as we had a brilliant day lined up for all our racegoers. All ticket holders will receive an email this morning about how to transfer tickets to another raceday or request a refund."

General Manager Bill Farnsworth said in a video clip the decision was about safety. He said: "Normally Musselburgh would take this rain no problem, but just because it's so wet and the water table must be very high it hasn't taken it so well.

"We would regard this as unfit for racing. It's saturated and too soft. The most important thing is that we put the safety of the jockeys and the horses first."