THOUSANDS of Worcester race-goers soaked up the atmosphere at Pitchcroft last night.

Nearly 3,000 flocked to see 115 runners over six races with total prize money of more than £21,000.

The Martin Pipe-trained Whisky Chaser at 10-1 was the impressive winner of the first race with Tony McCoy in the saddle.

Torn Silk grabbed victory in the big race of the night in the Fox Electronic Surveillance Systems Handicap Steeplechase.

Pitchcroft operations manager, Katherine Self, said crowds were a thousand up on the corresponding meeting last year.

"It was a beautiful evening and we were very lucky with that," she said.

"We had a two-day meeting a couple of weekends ago and the course is fine.

"There is less grass than we would like but after the amount of water we have had it is a miracle we are racing at all, which is a tribute to the ground staff who put in a lot of work to get the track back.

"Worcester is a popular summer National Hunt course and we are looking forward to the next meeting on June 30 which is ladies' day and always attracts good crowds."

Yesterday's results:

6.45: 1 Whisky Chaser 10-1, 2 Sir Walter 14-1, 3 Sahhar 14-1.

7.15: 1 Philtre 7-4f, 2 Team Captain 4-1, 3 Dealer Del 20-1.

7.45: 1 Fountain Bank 12-1, 2 Evening Chorus 7-1, 3 Kingsdown Trix 12-1.

8.15 1 Torn Silk 7-1, 2 Sissinghurst Flyer 8-1, 3 Daringly 25-1.

8.45: 1 Tsunami 7-1, 2 Orleans 20-1, 3 Barkingatthemoon 10-1.

9.15: 1 Suaverof 9-1, 2 Mowbray evens f, 3 Byzantium 4-1.