Scottish Sprint Cup Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends

Explore the Scottish Sprint Cup at Musselburgh, a thrilling Class 2 handicap over 5f. Discover past winners, top trainers, and jockeys while uncovering key trends that shape this exciting sprint event, showcasing Scotland's fastest racing talent.
Scottish Sprint Cup Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends
Andy Powell
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.

2026 Scottish Sprint Cup Preview

This class two handicap, the Scottish Sprint Cup is scheduled to take place in April of each year at the Musselburgh racecourse, a race that is open to runners who are aged four or older with a maximum of seventeen runners facing this five-furlong and one-yard trip.

The race usually takes place on the same day as the Queen's Cup, a heritage handicap also run at Musselburgh.

Scottish Sprint Cup Information:

We also have a dedicated Musselburgh tips page that will cover this race as well as all of the other races on the day of the race, see which runners the OLBG racing tipsters are predicting to win this race and the others on the cards. You may also be interested in other preview blogs that we have packed full of information, head down to the Other Principal Races at Musselburgh Racecourse section for links to these.


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How competitive is the Scottish Sprint Cup market? When looking at the over-rounds for the last 20 renewals, the most competitive market was in 2025 when the race had an over-round of 116%. The race in 2014 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 Scottish Sprint Cup, the over-round has been 127%, which means the bookie expects to pay out £100 for every £127 which is bet.

Below you will find the 2026 Scottish Sprint Cup Trends. See which patterns have occurred over the recent renewals that you may be able to use for the next renewal, we also have a section that looks at the Scottish Sprint Cup Trend Analysis.

These are the top three quickest-run Scottish Sprint Cup over the last 20 renewals:

  1. Caspian Prince (56.77) in 2018
  2. Red Baron (57.10) in 2015
  3. Pavershooz (57.52) in 2009

Looking at the future form, is the winner worth following next time out? Over the past 20 renewals, if you had followed the winner of the Scottish Sprint Cup next time out, then you would have backed a total of 3 winners. Backing all 19 runners who have been out since their win at SP next time out would have returned an LSP of +7.50. Before placing your bet on the 2026 Scottish Sprint Cup, see which other runners today are being backed on the racing predictions page.

When looking over the past 20 renewals, a time of 56.77 was set by Caspian Prince in 2018, which is the quickest time over that period, the runner was trained by Michael Appleby and ridden by Alistair Rawlinson. The slowest winning time was set in 2014 when Demora won in a time of 1:00.67, booked to ride was Alistair Rawlinson by the trainer Michael Appleby.

What the expert says...
Since 2005, only five of the winners went back-to-back having won their race last time out, eight of them finished fifth or worse before coming here, so form is not exactly key.

Andy Powell - Horse Racing Betting Expert - OLBG.com

Scottish Sprint Cup Past Winners

Here are the Scottish Sprint 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 and the jockey at the time of winning the Scottish Sprint Cup are also displayed, along with the starting price at which the horse was sent off.

Race Notes: The 2024 renewal was abandoned due to a waterlogged track.

YearHorse (Drawn)Info
2025
58.44
American Affair (GB)
5yo 9-5 (9 of 7) 7/2
Paul Mulrennan
Jim Goldie (GB)
2023
1:00.43
Silky Wilkie (IRE)
4yo 9-10 (14 of 13) 6/1
Clifford Lee
K R Burke (GB)
2022
58.29
Ancient Times (GB)
4yo 8-6 (14 of 13) 6/1
Pierre-Louis Jamin (3lbs)
Harry Eustace (GB)
2021
58.28
Jabbarockie (GB)
8yo 9-0 (10 of 13) 4/1F
Jason Hart
Eric Alston (GB)
2019
58.79
Saaheq (GB)
5yo 8-3 (15 of 16) 11/2F
Hollie Doyle
Michael Appleby (GB)
2018
56.77
Caspian Prince (IRE)
9yo 9-10 (9 of 16) 16/1
Alistair Rawlinson
Michael Appleby (GB)
2017
58.10
Line Of Reason (IRE)
7yo 8-12 (8 of 17) 11/1
Joe Fanning
Paul Midgley (GB)
2016
57.77
Hoofalong (GB)
6yo 8-5 (16 of 17) 16/1
Nathan Evans (5lbs)
Michael Easterby (GB)
2015
57.10
Red Baron (IRE)
6yo 8-6 (11 of 17) 4/1F
Neil Farley (3lbs)
Eric Alston (GB)
2014
1:00.67
Demora (GB)
5yo 8-8 (3 of 17) 10/1
Alistair Rawlinson (7lbs)
Michael Appleby (GB)

Where have the winning runners come from?

Here are the countries where the winning trainers of the Scottish Sprint Cup have been based:

  • GB: 20 winners with an additional 52 placings from 308 runners
  • IRE: 0 winners with an additional 1 placing from 2 runners

Scottish Sprint Cup Trainer Statistics

The leading trainer in the Scottish Sprint Cup over the last 20 renewals is Michael Appleby, who has won the race three times, with those three winners coming from Demora (2014), Caspian Prince (2018) and Saaheq (2019). Other trainers who have recorded multiple wins in the Scottish Sprint Cup are Bryan Smart (2 wins) and Eric Alston (2 wins). Two trainers have not had the best of times over the last 20 renewals in the Scottish Sprint Cup. Richard Fahey has sent a total of 15 runners to the race without recording any wins, whilst Milton Bradley has sent out 11 without a winner.

Here are some of the top Scottish Sprint 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
Michael Appleby8-3-3+26.50+14.69
Bryan Smart11-2-4+26.00+19.51
Eric Alston6-2-3+4.00+1.84
Tim Easterby34-1-4-28.00-23.49
Jim Goldie24-1-3-19.50-15.18
Paul Midgley21-1-3-9.00-9.87
Kevin Ryan19-1-4-2.00-3.87
David Barron15-1-5-11.25-7.40
Michael Easterby4-1-1+13.00+7.00
Ed de Giles2-1-1+5.00+2.75

Scottish Sprint Cup Jockey Statistics

The leading jockey in the Scottish Sprint Cup over the last 20 renewals is Alistair Rawlinson, who has won the race two times, with those two winners coming from Demora (2014) and Caspian Prince (2018). There is one jockey who has not had the best of times in the Scottish Sprint Cup, Tom Eaves has ridden 10 runners in the race without recording any wins.

Here are some of the top Scottish Sprint 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
Alistair Rawlinson3-2-2+25.00+15.25
Joe Fanning12-1-1+0.00-4.12
David Allan11-1-4-5.00+0.26
Duran Fentiman9-1-2+20.00+10.50
Paul Mulrennan9-1-3-4.50-3.25
Royston Ffrench7-1-4+4.00+8.38
Jason Hart6-1-4-1.00+1.25
Silvestre De Sousa4-1-1+17.00+9.50
Liam Keniry2-1-1+5.00+2.75
Hollie Doyle2-1-2+4.50+3.69

Scottish Sprint Cup Trend Analysis

✅ The trend factor, which has produced 10+ winners and shows the best LSP, an LSP of +65.25, is when runners ran over 6f on debut.

❌ The worst performing factor that has failed to produce a single winner is when runners had a highest class run of Class 1 (G2), when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-52.

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

  • 2025: Winner in 9 (8) [7 Runners]
  • 2023: Winner in 14 (12,8) [13 Runners]
  • 2022: Winner in 14 (12,9) [13 Runners]
  • 2021: Winner in 10 (12,7) [13 Runners]
  • 2019: Winner in 15 (17,10,8) [16 Runners]

The courses that have produced the most winners of the Scottish Sprint Cup are York and Haydock, there have been a total of 3 winners from each of those courses.

The race is open to both sexes, with the Male runners having produced a total of 19 winners from a total of 284 runners, whilst the Female runners have produced 1 winner from a total of 26 runners.

Looking over the past renewals, there is only one stallion whose offspring have produced multiple winners of the Scottish Sprint Cup; that stallion Piccolo, has produced 2 winners (2007,2005).

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

  • Pivotal (0 Wins from 12 runners)
  • Compton Place (0 Wins from 10 runners)
  • Kyllachy (0 Wins from 7 runners)
  • Monsieur Bond (0 Wins from 7 runners)
  • Acclamation (0 Wins from 6 runners)

Looking at the winning odds over the last 20 renewals, the biggest-priced winner was Burning Thread in 2011, winning for Tim Etherington at odds of 50/1 under the guidance of Dale Swift. Looking at the runners at the head of the market over the last 20 renewals, there have been 5 winning favourites in the race. Whilst we wait for the 2026 Scottish Sprint Cup, remember you can get daily racing predictions from the top racing tipsters on the best racing tipsters page.

Route to the Scottish Sprint Cup

Many trainers will target races to use as prep races before coming to the Scottish Sprint Cup, these are the races which the recent winners ran in before coming here:

InfoLast Race
2025 - American Affair
Ayr - 16th of 25 (11/4)
Ayr Gold Cup
2023 - Silky Wilkie
Wolverhampton (AW) - 8th of 10 (4/1)
Huge Daily Boosts Only BetUK Handicap
2022 - Ancient Times
Doncaster - 1st of 7 (13/2)
Read Kevin Blake On attheraces.com Handicap
2021 - Jabbarockie
Haydock - 5th of 11 (13/2)
Betfair Each Way Edge Be Friendly Handicap
2019 - Saaheq
Southwell (AW) - 2nd of 5 (3/1)
Betway Handicap
2018 - Caspian Prince
Epsom - 13th of 20 (7/1)
Epsom Dash
2017 - Line Of Reason
Epsom - 9th of 19 (12/1)
Epsom Dash
2016 - Hoofalong
Chelmsford (AW) - 1st of 3 (4/5)
Mayor of Chelmsford Handicap
2015 - Red Baron
York - 2nd of 20 (9/2)
titanbet.co.uk Spring Sprint
2014 - Demora
Haydock - 1st of 16 (8/1)
Betfair Supports Racing Welfare Handicap

Article Contributor Information

We are blessed with an excellent team of specialists and experts at OLBG. Contributing to creating and maintaining this Scottish Sprint 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.

James Banting

James Banting

Tipster Competition Assistant

James Banting, a passionate horse racing enthusiast and aficionado, brings a wealth of experience to OLBG, having attended numerous race meetings over the years. His background working with the Jockey Club provides him with a unique insider's perspective on the industry.
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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