PASSENGER will aim to get his season back on track, in the Group 2 Sky Bet York Stakes on the Knavesmire, this Saturday.

If successful, the colt would give trainer, Sir Michael Stoute, his second winner of this contest, some eighteen years after Best Alibi landed the inaugural running.

The Flaxman Stables-owned four-year-old shone on his seasonal reappearance in the Group 2 Huxley Stakes at Chester, where he triumphed by a length and a half.

Plans to contest the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot had to be shelved when the son of Ulysses suffered an untimely infection. But Passenger has returned to full fitness and is now set for his sixth career start.

The lightly-campaigned colt carries a 3lb penalty for that Chester success, so gives weight all round to his four rivals in the £135,000 contest, run over an extended mile and a quarter.

Alan Cooper, the owner’s racing manager, said: “He had a cough just at the wrong moment in his preparation for Ascot – now he is back at 100 percent. 

“He hasn’t run for quite a while and this is a good spot to get him back on the racecourse. He is progressing well. Michael and his team are happy with the horse. It’s a first step back.”

Passenger is set for his second outing at York. He finished third in the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Dante Stakes, over the same trip,  before running in last year’s Derby. 

Cooper added: “He has got a lot of class – I think that was evident by Michael’s programme last year, giving him a shot at Epsom. Hopefully, he will reward everybody’s hope for him on Saturday and then, all being well, we’ll be back at York for the Juddmonte (International Stakes on 21 August).”

This weekend Passenger will face a select group of rivals, including the defending Sky Bet York Stakes winner, Alflaila, as well as the talented three-year-old King’s Gambit who finished second at Royal Ascot in the Group 3 Hampton Court Stakes.

Four of the five intended runners already hold an entry for the £1.25m showpiece back at York in August, with connections of Ancient Rome knowing they could still supplement their contender.