TRADITIONALLY billed as one of the biggest betting races of the year, the Tote-sponsored Cambridgeshire Handicap has already erupted into a punting frenzy with the now red hot-favourite, Zonergem, being the subject of a massive public gamble over the past few days.

Exactly a week ago Zonergem (3.55) was on offer with most bookmakers at "double carpet" - 33-1 in layman's terms. But that was before he had made fools of his rivals by running away with a valuable one-mile handicap at Ascot last Sunday.

By Monday morning he was down to 10-1 for this afternoon's nine-furlong £120,000 showpiece, however that double-digit price soon dried up as backers piled on the cash to send the current odds of Zonergem tumbling to a miserly 4-1.

And should by chance the Lady Herries-trained gelding win the Cambridgeshire, it will be a classic rags-to-riches tale of success since the son of Zafonic was snapped up as an unraced three-year-old for a paltry 3,000 guineas at Khaled Abdullah's Juddmonte Farm dispersal sale.

"They told me he made a noise, but the vet scoped him and could find nothing wrong and he has been as right as rain ever since," said Lady Herries.

The key to Zonergem appears to be exaggerated waiting tactics, whereby the horse is held up at the back of the field and then let loose with about a furlong to travel.

The bigger the field, the easier those tactics are to execute, and with a whopping 35 runners facing the starter, jockey Darryll Holland should be able to come late and fast to deliver the goods, making it a day to forget for the bookmakers.

Trainer Jeremy Glover rarely leaves the meeting without a winner and his fast-improving stayer, Allinjim (1.40), has the perfect profile to get punters off to a successful start for the afternoon in the Greene King Handicap.

Allinjim suits Roberts Winston's aggressive style of riding, for it was Winston who pushed all of the right buttons when the combination made every yard of the running to collect at Nottingham last time out.

As ever some cracking three-year-old fillies line up for the Group 2 Sun Chariot Stakes, including Spinnette (3.15).

To date Spinnette hasn't quite lived up to her tall gallops' reputation, although this could be the day that Pat Eddery's partner finally comes of age.

Chepstow plays host to the first really significant jumps meeting of the autumn and winter campaign.

It also gives National Hunt fans the opportunity to appraise the brand new Paul Nicholls/Ruby Walsh partnership. Formerly Walsh had done the majority of his race riding in his native Ireland, however he has now joined forces with Paul Nicholls, second only to Martin Pipe in terms of sheer strength-in-depth when it comes to handling hurdlers and chasers.

And simply by running the rule over their opening salvo, it's not hard to predict them getting off to a flying start with several fancied runners - Cape Stormer (2.30), Santenay (3.00), General Claremont (3.30), Supreme Native (4.05), and Wild Knight (4.40) - all likely to be in the shake-up.

Pick of that impressive quintet may well prove to be Santenay in the £15,000 Free Handicap Hurdle. Santenay shaped with a good deal of promise as a juvenile hurdler, but always giving the impression he would be a totally different proposition during his four-year-old career.

As usual we sign off Saturday's action with a tip at Wolverhampton's evening meeting, where Kieren Fallon, having hot-footed it up from Newmarket, is fancied to steer home previous track-and-trip scorer Tantric (9.30) in the closing Ladbroke Yankee Handicap.

Tomorrow's star-studded Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp represents wall-to-wall quality.

Irish ace High Chaparral and the home team's Sulamani dominate the ante-post betting, although for my money it's that man Fallon once again poised to step into the breach to beat the lot aboard Sir Michael Stoute's wonderfully-classy filly Islington (4.30).

* Dual Derby winner High Chaparral was yesterday confirmed on course for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe Lucien Barriere at Longchamp tomorrow after his latest blood tests satisfied the Ballydoyle team.

Aidan O'Brien's colt has not been seen in racecourse action since his victory at the Curragh at the end of June after the stable's inmates were affected by a bout of coughing.

And High Chaparral has missed two recent possible engagements due to a poor blood picture.

But O'Brien said: ''High Chaparral is as ready as we could have him without a prep run which we would obviously have preferred.

''He's a clear-winded horse and his work has been exceptional this year. We are just happy to go there and are hoping he runs a nice race.''

The champion trainer is not too concerned over the underfoot conditions at Longchamp, currently described as good to soft, but expected to dry out by tomorrow.

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