That video linked earlier is probably the best way to do it Horde-side.
I've discovered that you can skip the apples at either end of the route. The two middle apples are enough. I don't know if it's any better than using the rock one and the one by the barrel turn-in NPC at the start. My guess is it's slightly worse. It's definitely a lot riskier.
If I'm correct in this way being worse, I can't see a better way to do it Horde side.
Gonna see how many I can get today. Hoping for 11. Either way I'm only 8 tokens short of Brewmaster (and my drake!) but I'm curious now. :p
edit: Well, good news and bad news! Had apples not kick in once, leading to exhaustion. Also had the guy not take my barrel for tokens, leading to me having to swoop back around to get apples and stop by him again. I still made 9 trips despite those problems. 10 would've been easy. I'm not sure on 11. I think I'll stockpile some tokens for brewfest next year in case they add new fun stuffs. Though no more than two stacks of tokens, lest I stretch bank space too far.
So I shall be streamlining this racing process some more!