Horse racing betting: Totesport November Handicap

Doncaster Saturday is the last day of the flat season and although the limelight will be firmly on jockeys Jamie Spencer and Seb Sanders in their titanic tussle for the jockey's championship, a nice little understory is the 3.10pm Totesport November handicap.

Both championship contenders have been drawn alongside each other with Sanders piloting John Terry out of stall six and Spencer aboard big-race favourite Pippa Green.

Pippa Green owes his position in the market due to an unbeaten run of three races spanning his short career which culminated in a solid victory in soft ground at Leicester 32 days ago. The trouble with that success, and his previous turf victory, was that both were run in softish conditions.

On Tuesday, the clerk of the course described the going at Doncaster as "good, good to firm" and anyone who has been looking out of the window recently will know that it has been nothing but glorious weather this week.

Punters eager to cut the field down to size from the 23 runners will be interested to know that 10 of the last 17 winners of the Totesport November Handicap have been three-year-olds, while those not wishing to be ageist should also consider that 16 of the last 17 horses confirmed their well-being with a top-four finish prior to winning the £46,000 contest.

Horses not falling into either one of those categories number eight (Lundy's Lane, Rampallion, Night Crescendo, Chicken Soup, John Terry, Realism, Bazart and Touch of Phrase) which makes our lives much easier.

Horses who have shortened dramatically in the betting in the last week for the Totesport November Handicap are Malt Or Mash and the Geoff Wragg-trained Heron Bay.

The latter's odds tumbled on Thursday and although the Hernando colt looked mightily impressive when winning the George V stakes at Royal Ascot in June, he has flopped twice in better races since and autumn may be too late in the season to be getting back to winning ways, especially with 9st 4lbs on your back.

Malt or Mash won comfortably at Newmarket last time out and considering two of his successes this season have come on good to firm going, it seems puzzling that his trainer, Richard Hannon, has gone on the record this week to say that he would pull his horse from the Totesport November Handicap if the ground dried out.

The trainer's son, Richard Hannon jnr said: "He stands a great chance but he needs some rain and he won't run unless he gets his ground - that is black and white." Still, the money is down for the three-year-old and he should run a big race if he makes the line-up.

Other horses at the head of the market for the Totesport November Handicap who have a confirmed preference for soft ground include Greek Envoy and Heaven Knows, so punters should zero in on Luca Cumani's Sanbuch.

Sanbuch ran Malt Or Mash to within half a length at Newmarket at the beginning of October and relishes this sort of distance on this sort of ground. He is 2lbs better off this time around with his rival, and with Cumani's stable proving earlier in the week with Purple Moon that they can ready a horse anywhere in the world, Doncaster looks a hell of a lot easier.

Others to consider are David Arbuthnot's Tropical Strait, who has run up a sequence of wins on the all-weather presumably to get in under the punters' radar and for those of you who like massive prices, Bazart wouldn't be the worst choice in the world. He beat subsequent Champion Stakes third Doctor Dino last year when trained by Pascal Bary and at 80/1, and off a feather-weight, he could be worth a sneak for the places.

Verdict: 1pt E/W Malt Or Mash @ 7/1 (Totesport)