Scottish Union was a bay horse with a small white star[1] bred by the Sledmere Stud of Driffield, East Yorkshire.
Richards tracked the favourite, before moving Scottish Union forward to take the lead inside the final furlong to win by a head.
Scottish Union led in the straight and successfully held off a challenge from Pasch, but was overtaken inside the final furlong and beaten four lengths by the recently imported French colt Bois Roussel.
[7] On his next appearance Scottish Union returned to the one mile distance to win the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot at odds of 4/7 ridden by the Australian jockey Bernard "Brownie" Carslake.
The Guineas winner was made favourite, with Scottish Union, ridden again by the fifty-year-old Carslake starting at odds of 7/1, after being considered a doubtful participant until ten days before the race.
In the Gold Cup he started favourite but fought against Carslake's efforts to restrain him and although he led for much of the way he tired in the closing stages of the two and a half mile race and finished third to Flyon.
[13] There was some criticism of Carlslake's performance but others, including the leading trainer George Lambton, argued that Scottish Union simply did not stay the extreme distance.
In their book A Century of Champions, based on a modified version of the Timeform system, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Scottish Union as an "inferior" St Leger winner.