THE NEW Year's Day meeting at Musselburgh will be broadcast live on ITV - the station's first live horse racing for almost 30 years.

ITV will broadcast Musselburgh’s two feature races from the New Year's Day meeting - the £30,000 totepool.com Auld Reekie Handicap Steeple Chase and the totepool Mobile Hogmaneigh Handicap Hurdle.

Presenter Oli Bell will anchor the 1 January broadcast from the county racecourse, and is "delighted" to be coming to East Lothian. 

He said: "Final touches are being made to preparations for what should be an excellent days’ racing from Musselburgh on January 1.

"This is a track with real heritage and history, and I and the rest of the ITV team are delighted to be covering it.

He was also looking forward to the running of this year's New Year Sprint during the meeting. with the final set to get under way at about 2.15pm.

Mr Bell added: “There is so much to look forward to, we can’t wait to be there."

Bill Farnsworth, Musselburgh Racecourse chief executive, added: “We are delighted to share the spotlight with Cheltenham on a historic day when ITV takes on the mantle of live broadcasting the best of British racing.

“New Year’s Day at Musselburgh has built up an excellent following and with more than £130,000 prize money on offer, we will attract quality fields which will show the course at its best for our television audience and those racing fans first footing in person."