Ayr each-way racing tip: Drop in class means full steam ahead for Don’t Look Back

17:40 Ayr: Virgin Bet Best Odds Daily Handicap (1 mile 5 furlongs) 

Heading the betting, Clansman has earned the favourite tag after backing up a runner-up spot over this course and distance in September with a convincing win over a longer trip here nine days ago.

The worsening conditions should not be a problem, but the five-pound penalty might be the straw that break the gelding’s back, and certainly the likes of Jaminoz (who also carries a penalty after back-to-back wins), and Kittykarma have the credentials to be there or thereabouts down the final stretch.

Of those carrying a double-digit price, Tafsir has strung an impressive sequence of results together with three wins and four places in nine outings since June, plus he is reunited with in-form Paul Mulrennan.

However, he did not appear to relish the heavy ground at Chester last time out 12 days ago, and might find today’s conditions too testing, all of which brings us to Don’t Look Back, who has been knocking at the door of adding to the win he enjoyed nine outings ago in April. 

He won that 12-runner affair in similar heavy going  at Doncaster and although it was over a shorter 10-furlong trip, the way he romped six lengths clear of the next two, with the remainder of the field strung out behind, suggested there was plenty left in the tank.

Don’t Look Back did not encounter such ground until September, when he stepped up to finish a respectable third of nine in 0-75 company over 12 furlongs at Catterick, and he performed well again to come fourth of 10 in similar conditions over the same course and distance last time out eight days ago.

He drops down significantly in class for this 0-65 affair, while he will also benefit from the seven-pound allowance of promising claimer Brandon Wilkie, who has landed two wins in his last seven rides, one of them at Ayr nine days ago.

Trainer Lucinda Russell has been producing horses in fine fettle recently, saddling six winners and four each-way places from her last 14 completed races, so we can expect Don’t Look Back to be in similar good shape here.