YORK’S four-day Ebor Festival gets underway today, with Roger Varian confident Postponed will prove his well-being in the feature Juddmonte International Stakes.

Having cemented his status as one of the world’s leading middle-distance performers with a four-and-a-half length thrashing of Found in the Investec Coronation Cup at Epsom, Postponed was expected to be an odds-on favourite for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

However, the five-year-old was forced to pull out of Ascot’s midsummer showpiece after suffering a respiratory problem in the week before the race.

A number of Varian’s horses have been affected by the condition, and the Newmarket trainer has only saddled ten runners this month, compared to the 68 that ran for him last August.

He had a welcome winner at Doncaster last weekend though, and with Postponed currently trading at odds of around 6-4, he is confident his stable star will be able to run to his best in today’s Group One showpiece, which forms part of the Qipco British Champion Series.

“Half the battle is recognising it and not doing too much with the horses if they are slightly under the weather,” said Varian. “We’ve been cautious with what we have run, but we managed to get a nice winner at Doncaster on Saturday and hopefully we are close to hitting form again.

“It’s challenging, but hopefully Postponed can give us a boost. He’s been training well over the last few weeks, looks great and seems right back to himself.

“Horses are no different to people in that one person might take longer to get over an illness than another living next door. Postponed is a big five-year-old with a good constitution, and he looks to have recovered quicker than some.

“He’s in his prime, and one of the best around. It was disappointing to miss the King George, but by no means the end of the world, and we are looking forward to running him in the Juddmonte International.”

Postponed has won his last five races, a sequence that stretches back more than a year, but all of those successes have come over a mile-and-a-half. Today’s race is over a mile-and-a-quarter, and all his previous outings over that trip have ended in defeat.

Nevertheless, Varian remains confident the ten-furlong trip should not be an issue, particularly given that a number of Postponed’s leading rivals are also dropping back in distance.

“This year he has travelled very strongly in his races, and most importantly, Andrea (Atzeni), who gets a number one feel of the horse, thinks he will handle himself down in trip very comfortably.

“Also, the majority of the horses in the field have perhaps shown their best level of form at a mile-and-a-half, so he is not the only one with it to prove at a mile-and-a-quarter.

“We wanted to try and win a Group One over ten furlongs with him, and York was always top of the list. The Eclipse (at Sandown) would have come a bit close to the King George, so the Juddmonte was always the ten-furlong race we were keen to have a go in.”

Postponed will face 12 rivals on the Knavesmire, with the field containing another four Group One winners.

Highland Reel will have his supporters having made all to land the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes ahead of Wings Of Desire and Sir Isaac Newton, who line up against him again, but the strongest competition could well come from Coral-Eclipse winner Hawkbill, who was supplemented earlier this month.

Hawkbill will attempt to extend Godolphin’s excellent record of three-year-olds running against their elders this summer.

Prince Of Wales’s Stakes winner My Dream Boat will also line up, along with much-loved veteran The Grey Gatsby, who landed the Dante Stakes for Kevin Ryan at York in 2014. Daniel Tudhope will be in the saddle this afternoon as The Grey Gatsby looks to improve on his last two outings in the Juddmonte that saw him finish in second and third position.

France will be represented by Dariyan, who won the Prix Ganay at Saint-Cloud, while Mutakayyef will step up to Group One level having cruised clear of Dutch Connection in the Group Two Fred Cowley MBE Memorial Summer Mile at Ascot on his last outing.

Sir Michael Stoute has trained a record-equalling five Juddmonte International winners, and will attempt to add to his tally with Exosphere, who will sport the same colours that Frankel carried to glory in 2012, and Arab Spring, who returned from a 14-month lay-off with a promising display at Haydock earlier this month.