“YOU don’t mind walking?,” asked Musselburgh Racecourse general manager Bill Farnsworth after I met him outside the grandstand overlooking the track on raceday.

I had to almost run to keep up with Bill as he marched quickly across the racecourse, with only minor deviations to pick up an offending piece of litter, as he gave me a whistlestop tour of the facilities.

Racing first started at Musselburgh in 1816 and attracted huge crowds, but during the 1960s when betting shops became legal, attendances slumped at all racecourses. In Scotland, Lanark and Bogside went bankrupt and Musselburgh almost suffered this same fate until in 1987 racecourses received a welcome financial boost when new technology enabled them to sell pictures of races to the betting shops. However, going into the 1990s the racecourse was still losing money and the future looked desperate, but in 1991 East Lothian Council took in the running of the racecourse from the Lothian's Racing Syndicate Limited (LRS). The chief executive at East Lothian Council was tasked to bring the racecourse to a breakeven position in one year, which remarkably was achieved.

The Musselburgh Joint Racing Committee (MJRC) was set up in 1994 to run the racecourse, which still exists today. The MJRC is a partnership between the Lothian's Racing Syndicate Limited and East Lothian Council. The racecourse sits on Musselburgh Common Good land and East Lothian Council own all the facilities and assets including the grandstands and stables. The MJRC pay a full commercial rent for use of the land and facilities to both the Common Good Fund and ELC.

Inside the track is Musselburgh Links golf course. The Old Course is an original Open Championship venue, is a nine-hole, par 34 links golf course and holds the Guinness World Record for being the oldest playing golf course in the world.

"Over the past 15 years the racecourse has undergone a vast transformation extending visitor and horse facilities and services," explains Bill.

Looking to the future more than £7.5 million has since been invested into the facilities at the racecourse since 1995, including a new hospitality stand (The Queen's Stand), the refurbishment of the Edwardian Grandstand and all public areas, the building of the Links Pavilion housing many essential facilities for customers, a new weighing room and entrance complexes, parade ring and stabling area.

Most recently there have been in excess of £2m spent on new stables and groundstaff facilities and extensive landscaping plus improvements to the track itself. With 103 Monarch stables, plus veterinary treatment boxes and the mandatory testing station, the new stabling facilities opened in June 2010 and were welcomed by racing staff who had previously been stabling horses down quiet lanes at the side of the nearby residential houses.

The biggest day at Musselburgh is ladies day on June 17, it's sold out in advance to 9,000 racegoers. The team at Musselburgh are working hard to create seasonal highlights – a two-day Easter weekend fixture to start the Flat season with a £100,000 prize fund, including a £50,000 race to be covered by Channel 4. Easter Sunday is a day for families which is more relaxed.

The Edinburgh Cup race day on the first Saturday in June is 'Derby day' was introduced two years ago for a consolation race for three-year-olds instead of the Doncaster Lincoln. There's also the Edinburgh Castle £20,000 race for two-year-olds to be used as a stepping stone for the Windsor Castle race at Ascot. Also during the summer there are evening fixtures and more family days, the Flat season concludes at the end of September with a family day.

This year they raced on New Year's day after being cancelled the previous two years, there they have the historic New Year Sprint. This highly competitive athletics competition is a handicap race held over 110 metres, the sprint has been staged in Scotland annually since 1870.

Until 1987 only Flat racing was held at Musselburgh, during the winter there are nine jump meetings, the highlight is on February 5 with the John Smith's Scottish Cheltenham Trials where some of the country's top novice and handicap hurdlers make their way to the East Lothian track in search of three £20,000 races.

"In February where everywhere is soft we often have good ground, the sandy soil keeps it not too heavy," explains Bill.

Although both courses are different – Musselburgh is right handed and flat and Cheltenham is left handed and undulating – the ground will be good which considering the high rainfall recorded this winter will be welcomed by horses and trainers alike.

"If horses are first or second here then they've got a good chance at Cheltenham," points out Bill.

The races for Cheltenham are the Scottish County Hurdle in preparation for the two-mile County Hurdle race, the Triump, the two-mile handicap hurdle and a new race this year, a hurdle chase to qualify for the Cheltenham hunter chase.

To keep the track in tip top condition there's five full-time groundstaff and up to 20 causal staff who will stamp in the divets between races and immediately after racing finishes spend time spreading divet mix and adding fertiliser during the summer. Around £120,000 is spend each year maintaining the track and after each meeting the running rail is moved to allow for fresher ground. There's a regular programme of fertilising, seeding, spiking to allow air into the track and vertedraining to decompact the track which goes on all year round. The irrigation system is currently being updated to increase the watering system.

"Over the past 15 years the racecourse has undergone a vast transformation extending visitor and horse facilities and services. As a not for profit organisation, everything we earn is invested back into the racecourse to ensure we continue to provide the best facilities for all our customers. We're proud to say that we've retained the award of VisitScotland 5* visitor attraction status since 2006," added Bill, who added the aim is to make Musselburgh Racecourse a 'Grade 1' dual-purpose (flat and jump) turf track.

Only last week it was announced that Musselburgh had won Dual Purpose Award in the Neil Wyatt Racecourse Groundstaff of the Year Awards. The awards recognise the hard work, planning and innovation that goes in to keeping racecourses in tip-top condition.

Clerk of the course Harriet Graham and Musselburgh's head of ground staff, Mark Bemrose, and his team were praised by the judging panel for "the improvements in the racing surface at Musselburgh, along with the high standards in all areas and the involvement of the team in development of the new stable complex".

I'd heard Bill had a keen eye and he kept up with this reputation while he showed me around the premises and facilities at the racecourse. Bill doesn't believe in standing still and he didn't miss much, as during this interview he noted an electric bulb that needed replaced, fixed a parasol and sorted out some behind the scenes paperwork, it's fair to say he has attention to detail which the racecourse is reaping the benefit from and going from strength to strength.

* To find out more visit www.musselburgh-racecourse.co.uk, the John Smith's Scottish Cheltenham Trials takes place on Sunday, February 5, gates open at 11.30am with the first race at 1.30pm.