Roger Varian believes Pekan Star has the ability to overcome his inexperience on the track when he bids to win the John Smith’s Cup at York on only his fourth start.

The four-year-old won over the 10-furlong trip on the Knavesmire in May before suffering a setback that ruled him out of Royal Ascot. He has fully recovered from that minor problem and Varian is anticipating a bold show.

“Pekan Star seems very well and I have been pleased with his work at home. He is a course-and-distance winner, but he is still quite inexperienced for a hard race like this, compared to many of his rivals,” Varian told At The Races.

“Originally, after he won at York, he was down to run in the Duke Of Edinburgh at Ascot, but 10 days prior to that race he had a bit of a dirty scope which ruled Ascot out, but he seemed to get over it fairly quickly.

“He’s bounced back and his work has been good. He appears to be in good order, so he’ll go up to York. I hope he can run a good race.

“I put him in the Ebor, but I wouldn’t be 100% sure about that. We’ve only gone a mile and a quarter to date and perhaps he might be a better horse when we go a mile and a half. Whether we’d stretch him over the Ebor trip it is too early to say.

“He’s an inexperienced horse but he’s an older one and he’s done enough work at home, so I would hope he will get over his inexperience and be up to running a nice race.”

Green Destiny was a big disappointment at Royal Ascot when he was a well-beaten favourite in the Wolferton Handicap, and trainer William Haggas said: “I don’t know what went wrong, but he’s fine now. He’s not got a good draw (17), but he can’t do anything about that.”

Richard Fahey has a team of four – Tepmokea, Kay Gee Bee, Demolition and Pleasant Day – as the North Yorkshire trainer attempts to win this prestigious handicap for a fourth time.

“We’ve got plenty of runners there but the draw has not been too kind. One of them is drawn 19 and another 22, but that’s where we are and we will have to see. They are where the handicapper wants them, so you need a bit of luck,” he said.

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