Rhoscolyn, Blue for You, Bennetot and Bopedro carry David O'Meara's hopes in Ascot's Balmoral Handicap

The Upper Helmsley-based handler sends Rhoscolyn, Blue for You, Bennetot and Bopedro to Berkshire for the one mile race, which concludes this afternoon’s 13th Qipco British Champions Day.

O’Meara, who won the race with Lord Glitters in 2017 and Escobar two years later – the latter was a reserve for today but didn’t make the final cut – is hoping he can add to his tally of 95 winners so far this season.

He also took last year’s renewal with apparent rank-outsider Shelir, who stayed on strongly in the final furlong under Jason Watson to win Europe’s richest one-mile handicap at odds of 80-1, beating stablemates Blue for You, Rhoscolyn, Escobar and Orbaan in the process.

The horse suffered a “bit of a niggle” following a winter in Dubai, but the trainer is confident he will return to action next year.

Discussing his runners for this year’s Balmoral, which again pays £103,000 to the winner, O’Meara told The Yorkshire Post: "We’ve got four in this year.

"Rhoscolyn comes into the race in good form. His three wins at Goodwood this year were all on soft ground, so he won’t mind the ground.

"Bennetot is a horse we got from France and are still getting to know.

"He didn’t run very well in his prep’ run at Haydock but we think he has come on quite a bit going on his home work.

"Blue for You is stepping back up to a mile and that will help but I am not sure about the heavy ground for him."

O’Meara’s final runner Bopedro finished third in the Cambridgeshire at Newmarket last month, beaten just a length by winner Astro King.

He has also won twice at headquarters this season on both good to soft and good to firm ground and his trainer is happy with his preparation.

He said: “Bopedro comes into the race in great form having been third in the Cambridgeshire. He goes on any ground and has also run well at Ascot before.”

The quartet travelled down from Yorkshire yesterday and O’Meara admits the job done by Storm Babet over the past couple of days makes it a harder one for him.

"It’s going to be a tough day with the way the ground is going to be. Whatever handles the ground best will do well. Roscolyn likes it and so does Bopedro, but a mile in heavy ground might just stretch Roscolyn.”

Overall it has been another very successful season for the Irish trainer with his 95 winners earning over £1.5m in prize money.

O’Meara admits the stable still misses its former star, the popular grey Lord Glitters, who retired after a brilliant career in which he also won two Group Ones, including the Queen Anne at Royal Ascot, before retiring in July last year.

"We are on 95 but we are still missing Lord Glitters, our flagship horse, but hopefully we will get to the hundred before long and it will be another great season for us.

"It is a busy time of year as we sell a lot of horses and buy a lot of yearlings, but hopefully we will have a nice team for next year.

"We have got some nice yearlings in already and other good ones in training so hopefully we will have another good year.”

Other Yorkshire horses running in the race today include Charlie Johnston’s The Gatekeeper and Eilean Dubh from Karl Burke’s stable, while Richard Fahey’s Maywake is the solitary reserve.

Meanwhile, Ascot have confirmed the three races due to take place on the round course today will be run on the inner course.

Following almost 40 millimetres of rain in the past seven days, the going has turned extremely testing.

The going on the inner track was reported as good to soft, soft in places, while on the straight track, used for the Sprint, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and the Balmoral Handicap, it was soft.