John Smiths Cup Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends

Updated: 2495 Horse Racing

We look at the John Smiths Cup ahead of the next renewal, a race contested over 1m2½f at York to see which runners, trainers and jockeys have previously won the race and which trends you can use to find the winner of the John Smiths Cup.

John Smiths Cup Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends
In this article: Preview
Andy Powell Content Editor

Horse Racing stats man, Andy has contributed to OLBG for 18 years - An Ipswich fan and F1 fanatic, he also contributes EFL football and Motor Sport opinion.

2025 John Smiths Cup Preview

Previously known as the Magnet Cup, the John Smiths Cup was established in 1960, the Class 2 handicap is run at York in July of each year. The race is open to runners who are aged three years old or older and is run over one mile and two furlongs, the race holds the record for longest-running commercial sponsorship in British racing having been sponsored by John Smiths Brewery since the race was first created in 1960.

John Smiths Cup Information:

Our dedicated York tips page will not only bring you predictions from the OLBG racing tipsters for the upcoming card that includes the John Smiths Cup but will also have predictions for each meeting at York throughout the season so be sure to head over there. You may also be interested in other preview blogs that we have packed full of information, head down to the Other Principal Races at York Racecourse section for links to these.

How competitive is the John Smiths Cup market? When looking at the over-rounds for the last 20 renewals, the most competitive market was in 2012 when the race had an over-round of 119%. The race in 2019 was a race that was most in the bookie's favour with an over-round of 139%, whilst on average over the last 20 renewals of the John Smiths Cup, the over-round has been 130%, which means the bookie expects to pay out £100 for every £130 which is bet.

John Smiths Cup Trends:

Looking at the future form, is the winner worth following next time out? From the past 20 if you had followed the winner of the John Smiths Cup next time out then you would have backed a total of 4 winners. Backing all 19 runners who have been out since to win at SP next time out, would have returned an LSP of -5.50. Ahead of the 2025 John Smiths Cup why not head over to the racing predictions for tips on other races today?

When looking over the past 20 renewals, a time of 1:56.61 was set by Charlie Tokyo in 2007, which is the quickest time over that period, the runner was trained by Richard Fahey and ridden by Jamie Moriarty. The slowest winning time was set in 2008 when Flying Clarets won in a time of 2:17.61, booked to ride was Frederik Tylicki by the trainer Richard Fahey.

These are the top three quickest-run John Smiths Cup over the last 20 renewals:

  1. Charlie Tokyo (1:56.61) in 2007
  2. Sirvino (2:07.18) in 2009
  3. Educate (2:07.34) in 2016

John Smiths Cup Past Winners

Here are the John Smiths Cup past winners for the last 10 renewals. Each row details the year of the race, the horse which won along with the age & weight of the horse. Also detailed is the stall where the horse came from and the total number of runners in the race. The horse's trainer at the time of winning the John Smiths Cup and the jockey are also displayed, along with the starting price at which the horse was sent off.

YearHorse (Drawn)Info
2024
2:09.66
Enfjaar (IRE)
4yo 9-1 (1 of 20) 15/2
Jack Mitchell
Roger Varian (GB)
2023
2:09.18
Pride Of America (FR)
6yo 9-5 (2 of 18) 18/1
Frederick Larson (3lbs)
Amy Murphy (GB)
2022
2:08.37
Anmaat (IRE)
4yo 9-8 (10 of 22) 5/1F
Kevin Stott
Owen Burrows (GB)
2021
2:11.82
Johnny Drama (IRE)
6yo 8-13 (1 of 20) 22/1
Joshua Bryan
Andrew Balding (GB)
2020
2:09.48
Sinjaari (IRE)
4yo 8-11 (7 of 22) 11/1
Stevie Donohoe
William Haggas (GB)
2019
2:10.38
Pivoine (IRE)
5yo 9-8 (6 of 21) 14/1
Rob Hornby
Andrew Balding (GB)
2018
2:09.50
Euchen Glen (GB)
5yo 9-3 (3 of 19) 20/1
Alistair Rawlinson
Jim Goldie (GB)
2017
2:10.16
Ballet Concerto (GB)
4yo 9-3 (11 of 20) 8/1
James Doyle
Sir Michael Stoute (GB)
2016
2:07.34
Educate (GB)
7yo 9-8 (14 of 19) 18/1
Thomas Brown
Ismail Mohammed (GB)
2015
2:08.28
Master Carpenter (IRE)
4yo 9-4 (1 of 17) 14/1
Phillip Makin
Rod Millman (GB)

Where have the winning runners come from?

Here are the countries where the winning trainers of the John Smiths Cup have been based:

  • GB: 19 winners with an additional 60 placings from 376 runners
  • IRE: 1 winner with an additional 0 placings from 4 runners

John Smiths Cup Trainer Statistics

The leading trainer in the John Smiths Cup over the last 20 renewals is William Haggas who has won the race three times with those three winners coming from Green Destiny (2011), Danchai (2013) and Sinjaari (2020). Other trainers who have recorded multiple wins in the John Smiths Cup are Richard Fahey (2 wins), Andrew Balding (2 wins) and Roger Varian (2 wins). Multiple trainers have not had the best of times over the last 20 renewals in the John Smiths Cup, Saeed bin Suroor (0-19), David O'Meara (0-17) and Brian Ellison (0-13) have all failed to produce a single winner despite sending multiple runners to the race.

Here are some of the top John Smiths Cup trainer statistics over the last 20 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

TrainerR-W-PWinEW
William Haggas20-3-5+10.00+3.13
Richard Fahey36-2-8-11.00-2.05
Andrew Balding13-2-5+25.00+18.25
Roger Varian12-2-5+3.50+2.06
Jim Goldie13-1-2+8.00+7.25
Sir Michael Stoute11-1-5-2.00-0.37
David Barron6-1-3+11.00+10.75
Ismail Mohammed4-1-2+15.00+11.25
Peter Chapple-Hyam3-1-1+31.00+18.63
Rod Millman3-1-1+12.00+6.75

John Smiths Cup Jockey Statistics

The leading jockey in the John Smiths Cup over the last 20 renewals is Andrea Atzeni who has won the race two times with those two winners coming from Danchai (2013) and Farraaj (2014). Multiple jockeys have not had the best of times over the last 20 renewals in the John Smiths Cup, Paul Mulrennan (0-11), Tony Hamilton (0-11) and Daniel Tudhope (0-10) have all failed to produce a single winner despite sending multiple rides to the race.

Here are some of the top John Smiths Cup jockey statistics over the last 20 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

JockeyR-W-PWinEW
Andrea Atzeni8-2-3+10.00+5.31
Stevie Donohoe4-1-2+8.00+6.88
Kevin Stott4-1-2+2.00+1.51
Robert Havlin3-1-1+31.00+18.63
Alistair Rawlinson3-1-1+18.00+10.50
James Doyle3-1-2+6.00+5.00
Jack Mitchell3-1-2+5.50+3.94
Adam Kirby3-1-2+4.00+3.13
Rob Hornby2-1-1+13.00+7.75
Joshua Bryan1-1-1+22.00+13.75

John Smiths Cup Trend Analysis

The trend factor which had produced 10+ winners and shows the best LSP, an LSP of +68.50 is when runners had 1 career place on the going. The worst performing factor that has failed to produce a single winner is when runners ran on Soft ground last time out, when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-43.

Here are the most recent winning draws along with the further placings in brackets:

  • 2024: Winner in 1 (6,10,8) [20 Runners]
  • 2023: Winner in 2 (11,6,3) [18 Runners]
  • 2022: Winner in 10 (3,8,2) [22 Runners]
  • 2021: Winner in 1 (3,10,19) [20 Runners]
  • 2020: Winner in 7 (18,17,2) [22 Runners]

The course which has produced the most winners of the John Smiths Cup is Ascot, there has been a total number of 5 winners of this race who ran at Ascot last time out.

The race is open to both sexes with the Male runners having produced a total of 19 winners from a total of 367 runners whilst the Female runners have produced 1 winner from a total of 13 runners.

Looking over the past renewals, there is only one stallion whose offspring have produced multiple winners of the John Smiths Cup, that stallion Authorized has produced 2 winners (2018,2013).

These are the stallions whose offspring have not produced a winner of the John Smiths Cup despite multiple attempts:

  • Cape Cross (0 Wins from 14 runners)
  • Danehill Dancer (0 Wins from 8 runners)
  • Arcano (0 Wins from 6 runners)
  • Dark Angel (0 Wins from 6 runners)
  • Galileo (0 Wins from 6 runners)

Looking at the winning odds over the last 20 renewals, the biggest-priced winner was Kings Warrior in 2012, winning for Peter Chapple-Hyam at odds of 33/1 under the guidance of Robert Havlin. Looking at the runners at the head of the market over the last 20 renewals there have been 3 winning favourites in the race. Whilst we wait for the 2025 John Smiths Cup remember you can get daily racing predictions from the top racing tipsters on the best racing tipsters page.

Article Contributor Information

We are blessed with an excellent team of specialists and experts at OLBG. Contributing to creating and maintaining this John Smiths Cup Preview are at hand, Andy and Darren. They both work on the Horse racing tips team team looking after the tipsters and managing the tips settlement, whilst also creating and managing all of the horse racing event previews for Flat Racing.

Darren Brett

Darren Brett

Tipster competition manager

Darren has worked in the horse racing industry for decades bringing to OLBG for the last 20 years a wealth of knowledge, creating much of our content on these sports. Darren also manages our Grand National Guide and is the go-to font of knowledge for the world's greatest steeplechase.
Andy Powell

Andy Powell

Content editor

Andy, a seasoned horse racing expert with over 15 years of experience, possesses a comprehensive understanding of the sport, from delving into complex statistical data for flat racing in the UK and Ireland to crafting insightful flat racing blogs for OLBG.

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