Keith Dalgleish saddles a double at Musselburgh

Carluke trainer Keith Dalgleish enjoyed his first winners of 2017 at Musselburgh. Picture: Sarah Peters

The Carluke trainer enjoyed a terrific 2016 when he sent out a personal best 93 winners – 81 on the Flat and 12 over jumps.

He said: “Last year was great and it’s always nice to aim higher. We like to try and improve the quality as well and, although most of the string are for the Flat, we have about a dozen jumpers too.”

With Brian Harding stood down after being “winded and bruised” in a previous race fall, Craig Nichol came in for the spare ride on impressive Kilmany Cup Handicap Chase scorer Mixboy.

Dalgleish said: “He’s a horse that needs breaks between his races so there are no plans. We will see how he comes out of this but he did it really well.”

Dream Flyer had earlier jumped for fun under Brian Harding in the Alex Donaldson Memorial Handicap Chase.

Irishman Brian Hughes, fresh from three winners at Ayr on Monday, completed another treble when scoring on Idder, Fattsota and Beyond The Clouds.

Lucinda Russell and James Ewart made it four wins on the card for Scottish trainers when striking with Superior Command and Landmarque respectively.

Meanwhile, Musselburgh had a record crowd on New Year’s Day. For the first time, the attendance broke the 6000 barrier and was up 18 per cent on 2016, from 5415 to 6406. Chief executive Bill Farnsworth said: “The day exceeded all expectations. We had hoped for around 6000 but with some fine sunshine and dry conditions people turned out in numbers. We have the foundations to make this one of Scotland’s best race days.”