AYR Racecourse has been awarded a new Listed race - bringing the number of Class 1 races at the track during the Flat season to six.

The addition to the headline contests at the track is a 5.5 furlong Fillies’ race for three-year-olds and upwards which will carry prize-money of £50,000 - £13,000 above the minimum value for such a race.

It will be run on William Hill Ayr Gold Cup Festival Ladies Day on Friday, September 22 – the middle day of the three day meeting.

Ayr Managing Director David Brown said: "This is fabulous news for the team at Ayr. To add a Listed race on the Flat for the second year in succession underpins our status as Scotland’s premier racecourse and only Grade 1 track.

“Our portfolio of Class 1s makes impressive reading and all of our existing Listed races and our Group 3 Firth Of Clyde Stakes punch above their weight.”

The full list of Class 1 contests at Ayr now reads the Group 3 Firth Of Clyde Stakes and the five Listed races - the Rothesay Fillies’ Stakes - introduced in 2016 - the Land O’Burns Fillies’ Stakes, the Doonside Cup and the Harry Rosebery Stakes.

In addition the Flat season at Ayr also features the historic William Hill Ayr Gold Cup the second richest sprint handicap in Europe with a prize fund of £200,000.

Ayr’s policy of improving prize-money and attracting a better quality of racing has in recent years seen winners of Class 1 races at the track go on to win or be placed in numerous Group races including several Group 1s.