The Scottish Grand National, run over four miles at Ayr, has been a fixture of the western Scottish course since 1966, following the closure of nearby Bogside, near Irvine, the previous year. The race is a handicap – in fact, what the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) terms a ‘Premier Handicap’ – in which each horse has, at least in theory, has an equal chance of winning. That fact, coupled with the marathon distance, 27 moderately stiff fences and a maximum field of 30 runners competing for £200,000 in total prize money – of which £112,540 goes to the winner – suggests than favourite backers can expect a low strike rate.
The nature of the Scottish Grand National inevitably means that a certain amount of luck-in-running is required to win. On the whole, though, the left-handed, mainly flat circuit at Ayr presents a fair test of jumping and we are, after all, talking about elite staying chasers. Under both codes of racing, regardless of the race type, only around 33% of favourites win and, in the last decade at any rate, the Scottish Grand National compares favourably with that overall percentage.
Since 2015, three outright, joint or co-favourites have won the Scottish Grand National, Vicente (9/1F), beat a maximum field in 2016, With My Wings (13/2CF) in 2022 and Kittys Light (4/1JF) in 2023. In the same period, three winners, including the most recent winner, Captain Cody in 2025, were returned at single-figure prices. They were, however, accompanied by winners at 33/1, 25/1 (twice) 18/1 and 14/1, demonstrating that the Scottish Grand National is not always plain sailing for punters. It is also worth noting that prior to Vicente, the last winning favourite was Paris Pike, trained by the late Ferdy Murphy, back in 2000.