Musselburgh's day in the sun as handicaps galore set punters Easter puzzle

Countless children will spend Saturday engaged in Easter egg hunts. For punters, the hunt will be for winners. Finding them may be fun but anything from easy.

Nobody would pretend this is the most glittering Saturday in the racing calendar, but with seven handicaps at Musselburgh and Haydock providing ITV4's armchair action, there is plenty to get our chocolate-chasing teeth stuck into.

The Queen, a past visitor to Musselburgh, gives her name to the Queen's CupCredit: Grossick Racing

Last Saturday, the Queen gave her name to the race that put a perfect seal on the career of Australian wondermare Winx. This Saturday Her Majesty gives her name to the Queen's Cup (3.35), a £100,700 long-distance puzzle that Mark Johnston is trying extremely hard to win.

The Middleham maestro has four of the 14 declared runners, including likely favourite Austrian School, who ended 2018 by finishing second or third in his last seven outings. Valuable compensation could now await under Joe Fanning.

The Scottish Sprint Cup (3.00) and Royal Mile (2.25) provide excellent support to the Musselburgh crown jewel, while Haydock offers up the six finals of the Challenger Series, a destination for many mid-tier jumpers.

Given his BHA rating of just 67, Roy Rocket could only be described at best as a mid-tier performer, yet he is vastly more than that.

The John Berry-trained grey has become one of Flat racing's most popular horses and is back at his beloved Brighton – the home to all nine of his career wins – for the seaside venue's Saturday evening highlight (6.50).

Musselburgh digs deep due to lack of sponsor

On Musselburgh's biggest day of the year there is £238,916 to be won in prize-money – and none of it is being covered through commercial sponsorship.

Recent times have been fraught for the ambitious track, whose ITV4-televised flagship fixture has been hit hard by Betfred and the Tote ending numerous raceday partnerships.

As a result, the local authority-owned Musselburgh is self-supporting a card that features the Queen's Cup and Scottish Sprint Cup, which moves to this day from a pre-Royal Ascot Saturday card in June that no longer exists. Now also without a backer, it has been halved in value to £50,700.

Bill Farnsworth: 'It has been one of the most frustrating things I've had to deal with in all my time at Musselburgh'Credit: Grossick Racing 07710461723

"It has been one of the most frustrating things I've had to deal with in all my time at Musselburgh," said chief executive Bill Farnsworth.

"We tried desperately hard over six months to get a sponsor but without success. The Tote moving on left a massive hole and has hit the smaller tracks particularly hard. It also meant a flood of sponsorship opportunities hit the market at the same time, so we always knew we were in a difficult situation.

"On this day last year we received £65,000 in sponsorship money from the Tote, so we're missing a significant number.

"It's been painful, but you do find in racing, as in life, that you lose in one area and gain in another. In this instance ticket sales have been flying and we have a divided race, which means more media rights income. All that won't make up the shortfall but it does help."

Musselburgh, which should have a new third-party operator by November, certainly deserves a change of luck, with Farnsworth highlighting how much ill fortune the venue has suffered.

Musselburgh's big Saturday card is this year unsponsoredCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

He added: "Our financial year runs from April to March, to cover a whole Flat and jumps season, and last year was the first in 20 years that we lost money.

"Everything that could go wrong did go wrong, not least the cancellation of five meetings, including both days of our Cheltenham trials weekend. We had the Beast from the East and lost a Flat fixture to waterlogging, but we also suffered because of some beautiful weather as people decided to do other things instead."

It is hoped around 6,000 people will decide to go racing at Musselburgh on Saturday, when a forecast of 21C is hopefully not enough to tempt them to go anywhere else.

Varian hopes to unleash another star filly

With the Craven meeting over, the recognised Guineas trials are now done and dusted. However, Kempton's Saturday card features two races that in their previous incarnation used to be Guineas sighters – and might conceivably be again this year.

The track's two Racing TV-sponsored one-mile conditions events were once run as the Easter Stakes and Masaka Stakes, with both holding black-type status and providing a springboard to the Newmarket Classics.

Their stature is not what it once was but the colts' contest (3.10) has attracted a pair of 2,000 Guineas entries in Name The Wind and Chairmanoftheboard, while the fillies' heat (2.35) has a fascinating candidate in the shape of Nausha, whose trainer Roger Varian and jockey David Egan combined on Tuesday to land the Nell Gwyn Stakes with the new Qipco 1,000 Guineas favourite Qabala.

Roger Varian and David Egan seek to continue their excellent week at KemptonCredit: Edward Whitaker

Nausha, the winner of a Newbury novice race in October, can be backed at 50-1 for the Guineas but only 25-1 for the Investec Oaks.

Speaking about her Kempton return in his Racing Post Stable Tour interview this week, Varian said: "It might tell us if she's one for a Guineas of some description, or possibly one to run in an Oaks trial. Hopefully she's Group class."

Varian has two runners in Kempton's showpiece, the Listed Snowdrop Stakes (3.45), but the trainer's four-timer-seeking Contrive and Shenanigans have something to find on the form book with Richard Hannon's 108-rated representative Anna Nerium, a Group 3 winner at Goodwood last summer.

Plenty of family affairs at Haydock

Racecourses on Easter Saturday will provide plentiful opportunities for a family day out – which is exactly what a trio of families are doing in one of Haydock's Challenger Series finals.

In the 2m handicap hurdle (2.05), three runners will be ridden by the son or daughter of the horse's trainer.

The two Jonjo O'Neills team up at HaydockCredit: Grossick Racing

Moving down the card, Jonjo O'Neill jnr partners Bhutan for Jonjo O'Neill, Chester Williams does the steering on Peruvien Bleu for Jane Williams and amateur Abbie McCain is aboard Beach Break for Donald McCain.

Noel George is also in action for father Tom George on Sumkindofking in the staying chase final (2.40), while hopes will be high for Isabel Williams when she joins forces with dad Evan Williams on Burn Baby Byrne in the mares' hurdle final (1.30).

That runner is a last-time-out winner, as is The Bay Birch, who Stan Sheppard steers for father Matt Sheppard in the mares' chase series (3.50).

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