The bumper crowd took advantage of the sunny weather to reinforce the racecourse's position as venue for East Lothian's largest Easter Sunday family event.

With a wide range of free children's entertainment on offer a record 1300 children and 4342 adults attended the family race day.

The total attendance is up by 46 per cent on the previous year (3500) when bad weather and an earlier Easter weekend than usual affected the gate.

Before the race meeting more than 60 junior members and adults were treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of the racecourse.

The success of Easter Sunday at Musselburgh was aided by a Musselburgh News/East Lothian News 2-1 ticket deal with 134 readers taking advantage of the discounted offer.

Building

Musselburgh Racecourse commercial manager, Sarah Montgomery: "It has been one of our most successful Easter Sunday meetings and we are delighted with the turn out.

"Every child entertainment at the course was free and working with partners like the Musselburgh News and East Lothian News by offering discounted offers is our way of trying to help families who have to make their budgets stretch further in harder times.

"To increase attendance on the previous year by 46 per cent is a great boost for our flat racing season and we will be building on this success with a number of Seasonal Highlights meeting which offer great value and family entertainment."

The next meeting at Musselburgh Racecourse is the May Day Race Day on Friday May 1.