Arab Dawn heading for York

The four-year-old provided trainer Hughie Morrison with his sole success at this year’s Royal meeting when holding off the late challenge of Ajman Bridge in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes.

Although victory that day came over a mile and a half, Morrison is edging in favour of dropping the gelded son of Dalakhani back two furlongs for a shot at the valuable handicap on July 10.

Morrison said: “We are feeling our way towards the John Smith’s Cup, but we’ll see how he goes. If we don’t go for that, we will probably wait and go for the Ebor. One of his great attributes is that you can switch him off, which would give us hope of him getting the Ebor trip.”

John Gosden is wary of the threat posed by Yorkshire horse of the year The Grey Gatsby when odds-on favourite Golden Horn bids to add Sandown’s Coral-Eclipse to victories in York’s Dante Stakes and the Epsom Derby.

“It’s far from a one-horse race and I have a great deal of respect for The Grey Gatsby, who is a multiple Group One winner and was a little unfortunate not to win at Royal Ascot,” said Gosden, ahead of Saturday’s eagerly-anticipated clash. “He’s arguably the best mile-and-a-quarter horse around and sets a very high standard. I think the odds should be more like evens and 2-1 rather than what they are now.”

Barry Geraghty remains hopeful of making his debut as retained jockey to leading owner JP McManus this weekend – despite being admitted to hospital with a kidney stone on Tuesday. The leading jockey has been sidelined with a broken shinbone since March, but had been riding work before his latest setback that happened when he was taken ill at the wedding of fellow rider Paul Carberry.