MUSSELBURGH Racecourse was a joint-winner of the Small Racecourse of the Year award at the annual Horseracing Awards of the Racehorse Owners Association.

The county track shared the award with Bangor-on-Dee as the presentation ceremony took place at London’s InterContinental Hotel last week.

Alan Pickering, chairman of the ROA Raceday Committee, said: "Their dead heat epitomises the increase in standards virtually across the board amongst the smaller racecourses. No form of modern technology could have split this dead heat, and tossing a coin would have devalued the concept."

"Musselburgh is one of the most consistently high-scoring racecourses according to the ROA members and they demonstrate a fantastic can-do attitude throughout the levels of management.

"Their winners experience is universally praised, as is the owners’ lunch, and they couldn’t help but be declared winners also."

Musselburgh’s senior operations and commercial manager, Sarah Montgomery, said: "We are delighted this award recognises our efforts and particularly the commitment of our dedicated race day team consisting of Jane Walker, Fran Marshall, Sheila Dodds, Jane Dun and Joan Chirnside."

Cheltenham has been voted the Large Racecourse of the Year in response to the "tremendous investment" made in recent years for the full extent of the owners’ experience.

The three venues were among 12 of the country’s racecourses awarded Gold Standard status during the autumn. 

As part of the ROA Gold Standard award process, association representatives visited every racecourse in Britain at least once between January and October to assess all aspects of the owners’ raceday experience.

In addition, feedback was provided by a number of ROA members following their racecourse visits. 

Musselburgh is now preparing for the Tote Pool New Year’s Day meeting on New Years' Day - which will include the finals of the New Year Sprint - following the abandonment of Monday's racing due to frost.