Betfair Official Blog

Haydock Park Sprint Cup Betting

Europe's leading speed merchants thrust together in battle and strong betting markets are just a couple of reasons why Haydock's Sprint Cup meeting attracts so many people looking to have a bet on and off the track.

The two-day Sprint Cup meeting in early September at the popular Grade 1 Lancashire track offers plenty of competitive handicap betting heats, some decent quality maidens offering solid betting opportunities, but principally, the Group 1 Haydock Park Sprint Cup, a six furlong contest that attracts the cream of British and overseas speed merchants.

Always well attended by knowledgeable north-western racegoers who enjoy a 'proper' bet and shop around for the best odds creating healthy betting markets, Haydock's long home straight suits a robust, long-striding animal and gives jockeys the opportunity to ideally place their mount during the half mile run from the home turn. Unlike in some sprints, those with in-play bets get a good view of how the race is unfolding and can usually spot horses coming with a late burst in the select field.

Favourites have had a strong record (particularly in maiden races) where serious betting is often noted at a wide variety of odds and substantial bets have been very much the order of the day.

The first day of the meeting tends to offer more standard run-of-the-mill competition, but on the Saturday it's all about quality, with the feature betting event the Sprint Cup being supported by the tightly knit handicap betting event the Old Borough Cup, the listed Superior Mile and the Be Friendly Handicap, a normally tight betting heat that remembers the Peter O'Sullevan-owned dual winner of the race some 40 years ago. Betting at the Haydock Park Sprint Cup meeting

In 2005, Eric Alston's Reverence justified his odds when winning the Haydock Park Sprint Cup in fine style on rain-softened ground and landed some significant bets in the process, but there are few strong trends in a race which has proved equally lucrative for both three-year-olds and older horses, although the betting markets can often prove highly informative.

French-based trainer John Hammond has won the race three times since 1991 and punters looking for an ante-post bet will check out his entries, with the betting likely to provide a solid guide as to the odds of him repeating the feat. Yorkshire-based trainer Tim Easterby has won two of the last seven runnings - in 2000 with Pipalong, before striking again to land some hefty bets with Somnus whose odds contracted significantly prior to the start in 2003