MECCA’S ANGEL will tackle the biggest challenge of her career when she lines up in the King’s Stand Stakes later today – but Michael Dods is confident his stable star will confirm her status as one of the leading sprinters in the world.

Having broken the five-furlong track record at Longchamp as she claimed the Prix de Saint-Georges last month, Mecca’s Angel steps up to Group One level for the first time on the opening day of Royal Ascot.

The four-year-old, who is trained at Dods’ County Durham base at Denton, near Piercebridge, will be lining up against last year’s winner, Sole Power, as well as leading five-furlong specialists such as Muthmir, G Force and Moviesta.

The occasion could hardly be further removed from her debut outing, which saw her finish out of the front three in a maiden at Thirsk, or the Class Six contest on the all-weather at Southwell in July 2013 that saw her claim her second victory.

She has improved markedly since then, and while Dods accepts that today’s challenge will be something of a step into the unknown, he is confident she is capable of handling the step up in class providing underfoot conditions are not too firm.

“The ground is the only real worry,” said Dods, who will also saddle star two-year-old Easton Angel in tomorrow’s Queen Mary Stakes. “Even at this stage, if we feel things have gone too firm, she won’t run.

“You’d like to think that the first day of the meeting would see the ground at its softest. I’m sure they won’t want to be watering all week, so if there’s any doubt, you’d think they’d err on the side of caution for the first day and then let nature take its course after that.

“It’s obviously a big step up, but I think that’s the level we have to aim at with her now. She’ll be taking on the best sprinters in Europe, but she’s earned the right to be competing at that level and we’ll just have to see how she goes.

“We understand it’s a big challenge, but she’s handled every challenge she’s faced so far and there’s no reason to think this will be any different.”

Last season’s victories in the Scarborough Stakes at Doncaster and Dubai International Airport World Trophy at Newbury marked Mecca’s Angel down as a filly to watch, but it was last month’s blistering display in France that catapulted her into the very top echelon of sprinters.

Controlling affairs from the front of the field, she effectively put the race to bed in a matter of yards as she kicked for home at the two-furlong pole, and Paul Mulrennan barely had to move a muscle as he fended off the attentions of Robert Le Diable, who finished as a well-beaten runner-up.

A repeat of that form this afternoon would ask serious questions of the rest of the field, including favourite Sole Power, who likes to come late and finish with a flourish, and Dods feels Mecca’s Angel, who is currently trading at around 8-1, has improved further since triumphing at Longchamp.

“She improved over the winter, and I think she’s improved even more since her run in France,” he said. “She’s a much stronger filly now and she’s seeing out her races better than she ever has done.

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“But there are horses in that field who have been primed to the second for this race. A few of the others didn’t quite run up to their form in their first outings of the season, but in quite a few cases, I think that was probably deliberate.

“Take Sole Power for example – Edward Lynam will be making sure he’s got the horse absolutely A1 for this day so you can forget all about its last run over in Ireland.

“You’re talking about some absolutely fantastic horses, but that’s not really something that should scare us. It’s just massively exciting to be going up against these kinds of horses and thinking that you’ve got a chance of beating them.”