There was reason to cheer at Musselburgh Racecourse as they celebrated their most successful season to date.

The racecourse has welcomed larger crowds and bigger prize money over 17 meetings of the 2014 flat season, with attendances up 14 per cent from 44,962 to 51,358, while prize money rose by £121,000, from £1.07 million to £1.2 million, averaging £70,000 at each meeting.

Among the highlights of the season included the racecourse’s first ever £100,000 race, the William Hill Scottish Sprint Cup, and the 10th anniversary of the Stobo Castle Ladies Day in June.

That event sold out in record time, with all tickets snapped up three months ahead of the meeting, which attracted a record attendance of 9,000. In what has been a record-breaking season for the county racecourse, there was also a piece of sporting history, as Musselburgh became the first venue to host a turf meeting on Good Friday, which, along with the ever-popular Easter Sunday meet, pulled in almost 8,000 racing fans.

The Edinburgh Cup meeting in June had a record £143,000 in prize money, and a crowd over 6,000 highlighted the meeting’s growing popularity in the Scottish racing calendar.

And last month, with the independence referendum at the forefront of everyone’s minds, the racecourse held a one-off charity race in partnership with bookmakers Ladbrokes.

Yes We Can came out on top in the race against Better Together’s Nae Thanks, with £800 raised for Cash for Kids.

And Bill Farnsworth, racecourse general manager, said: “We try hard to keep things fresh and to innovate and come up with new ways of making Musselburgh a must-visit for racing fans.

“The racecourse team at Musselburgh all work as one and it is very satisfying to see their efforts come to fruition and be rewarded with more people through the gate, bigger prize money and a better quality of horses from returning trainers who have East Lothian firmly on their radar.” Mr Farnsworth was also delighted that William Hill has extended its sponsorship of the sprint cup, having signed a deal for a further three years.

He added: “The Scottish Sprint Cup is now firmly established as one of the best sprint features in UK racing and we are delighted William Hill shares that view and has signed up for a further three years.

“We keep saying Stobo Castle Ladies Day improves each year but it’s true and the 2014 meeting was without doubt our most successful to date.” And Farnsworth is looking forward to the challenge of replicating the success of the flat season when the jumps season gets under way on November 6.

“With both increased attendances and prize money, we have had a successful flat campaign and are now focused on replicating that when the jumps season gets under way next month,” he added.