Meehan Looking Forward To Ascot

Brian Meehan is hoping for at least three winners at Royal Ascot next week as he prepares to saddle a bumper squad in search of success.

Meehan's team will be headed by David Junior, 7-4 favourite with Coral for the Prince of Wales's Stakes.

Off the track since winning the prestigious Dubai Duty Free at Nad al Sheba back in March, the four-year-old has been given a break with the aim of returning for an end-of-season campaign which will culminate in a tilt at the Breeders' Cup Classic.

But there was no suggestion from the trainer yesterday that his stable star is anything less than 100 per cent after his recent holiday.

'We all feel at home that he has improved again since Dubai and if he can run as well as he did there then he will take a bit of beating,' said the trainer.

'We felt since Dubai that the practical, albeit slightly ambitious, would be to have a campaign that will ultimately end in the Breeders' Cup.

'Although he can get a bit excited he was very cool in Dubai, even when a filly got very stirred up in the paddock and once he gets out on to the track he is a professional.'

Among Meehan's other runners at the meeting will be Donna Blini, the winner of last year's Cheveley Park Stakes, set to tackle a mile again in the Coronation Stakes.

Well beaten in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, Meehan has urged punters to forget that disappointing effort from his filly.

'It was a messy race there and apart from anything else we felt that the ground didn't suit her,' said the trainer.

'The ground will be better at Ascot and I am pretty sure that the mile won't be a problem.'

Violet Park is set to step up in grade in the Group Two Windsor Forest Stakes while fast-improving Red Rocks will take in the King Edward VII Stakes.

? PA Sport