Brian Meehan is looking forward to stepping his talented three-year-old up to ten furlongs for the first time in Saturday’s Stevenson Stakes at Newbury.

A winner of the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot as a two-year-old, Rashabar will head to Newbury following his fourth-place finish behind John and Thady Gosden's emerging star Field Of Gold in the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot a month ago.

"He's come out of Ascot really well," said Meehan on Sky Sports Racing. "I've been very pleased with him. He's in tremendous form and worked well on Thursday morning.

"It's a nice race (Steventon Stakes). It comes at the right time of year for a lot of horses. It's certainly ideal for us as I've always thought that ten furlongs would be good for him, he's out of a Camelot mare, so I'm pleased to be able to run him locally because this is a prep race really for the Prix Guillaume d'Ornano at Deauville.

"Saturday is about seeing if he will stay the trip, but I'm confident he will.

"As I say, he's out of a Camelot mare, while Holy Roman Emperor retired as a two-year-old, so we don't know how far he would have got as a three-year-old.

"I'm confident he'll get the trip but like I said, the run on Saturday is to see if I'm right.

"If not, we'll drop back to a mile in the Prix Jacques-Le-Marois."

With showers around in the West Berkshire area, there is a distinct possibility that there will be some ease in the ground come Saturday afternoon.

On the prospect of his contender returning to easier conditions, Meehan said: "He's got excellent form from the Lagardere on soft ground in Paris last October.

"For sure, he's a horse that will prefer it good or faster, but he has coped with softer ground."

He added: "We went into the Irish race, and we were definitely short of work. He'd had a temperature, and he had to have a quiet week at that time. That stopped us running in France (French Guineas) which is where we wanted to go, so obviously we went to Ireland a little bit short.

"He ran very well at Ascot. It was a small field, but two different horses managed to bump into him at different stages in the straight so we could have got a bit closer.

"Rashabar has never put a foot wrong in his life and I'm excited to try him over a mile and a quarter."