Meehan seeking stamina answers with Steventon contender Rashabar

Brian Meehan is on a “finding-out mission” with Rashabar in Saturday’s BetVictor Steventon Stakes at Newbury.

A shock 80-1 winner of the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot last summer, the Holy Roman Emperor colt went on to finish second in two French Group Ones before the end of his juvenile campaign and kicked off the new season by finishing second to Jonquil in Newbury’s Greenham Stakes in April.

He has since chased home the brilliant Field Of Gold twice, placing fourth in both the Irish 2,000 Guineas and in St James’s Palace Stakes ahead of a first attempt at a mile and a quarter at Listed level this weekend.

Meehan said: “He’s very well and we’re on a finding-out mission to see whether he’ll get the trip.

“There was never any question mark about whether he’d get the mile, if anyone had doubts about that they were obviously watching a different horse to me, but the mile and a quarter is unknown territory.

“I’ve always felt he would stay and we’re doing it try to open up more possibilities for him. He’s a Group One horse and he needs to have different bullets in his arsenal really, to give him options to try to get that Group One win.

“He ran very well in the Irish Guineas and I was happy with his run at Ascot. He was hampered twice by two different horses up the straight and I felt he ran a very solid race.”

With rain forecast, conditions could ease at Newbury, which Meehan admits may not be ideal given the question marks over his stable star’s stamina.

He added: “I don’t think cut in the ground bothers him, but I don’t know how I’d feel about soft ground on a fact-finding mission over this trip.”