Scottish Sprint Cup (Musselburgh) Preview & Betting Tips – Saturday 11th June 2016

Musselburgh hosts one of its biggest races this weekend, the Class 2 Scottish Sprint Cup, which is a heritage handicap. It’s one of Scotland’s best five furlong contests and as a result, we have another good list of horses for this year’s renewal, 17 runners in total.

The expected going is good to firm, and whilst by no means unusual for this time of year, the firmer ground is likely to suit some horses more than others. A preference for such going could prove to be decisive in what should be a close run race.

Race Analysis

There are a few strong looking trends coming into this race, the first being the age of recent winners. Nine out of the last 10 Scottish Sprint Cup winners were between 4 and 6 years old so this does seem to be a race that favours the younger runners.

Nine of the last 10 winners also finished in the top three in one of their previous three starts before their victory here. Perfect form is by no means essential but at least one good recent run seems to count for a lot, especially if it has come within the last month.

Running styles are likely to make a big difference on the outcome of this race with it being so short and with such congestion on the track. Horses that tend to lead are likely to fare much better as they will avoid getting stuck in the pack behind them so front-runners should be favoured.

Betting Tips

One horse that does like set the pace from the front is Red Baron and it was a style that helped him secure victory here last year. He’s moved up the ratings since that ssuccess and will race with some additional weight but the 9/1 (Sky Bet) shot looks to still stand a very good chance given his past history in this race. At 7 years old, he may be a little too old for this one now but on the back of his second place finish at Thirsk over five furlongs last month, you would fancy him to at least place.

One horse who does meet the age trend is See The Sun. The five year old has witnessed quite a remarkable turnaround this year. Having suffered a rather awful and winless 2015, he’s begun 2016 with back to back victories, albeit both over six furlongs. Out of his 26 career starts, he only has one five furlong victory under his belt but whatever Tim Easterby has done over the winter break has done wonders and he’s worth backing to carry on his great form over the shorter trip at odds of 10/1 with Ladbrokes.

The final mention goes to Duke of Firenze (9/1 Sky Bet) given the excellent form he has been in just lately. His last two sprint starts have both involved 16 other runners but he was able to secure victory in one at York and a third placed finish in the other at Epsom. With David Allan once again riding the seven year old, another good performance and a placed finished should be expected at the very least.