Alflaila made a triumphant return to action with an impressive display in the Sky Bet York Stakes.

The Owen Burrows-trained four-year-old won a Listed race at Pontefract and successive Group Threes to round off last season, including a verdict at York in the Strensall Stakes.

A subsequent injury suffered when being readied to run in Bahrain delayed his reappearance, but he proved his talent remains very much intact with a smart performance on the Knavesmire.

A small but select field of five went to post for the Group Two contest, with My Prospero the even-money favourite to make the most of a slight ease in class after finishing fourth in the Lockinge at Newbury and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot on his first two starts of the season.

But after responding to Tom Marquand’s urgings to grab the lead late on, he was unable to resist the challenge of Alflaila, who had been biding his time in behind under Andrea Atzeni and swept by in the closing stages to prevail by half a length.

Royal Champion was only a length further behind in third, with Checkandchallenge fourth and Mashhoor last of five after cutting out the early running.

William Haggas expects My Prospero to take advantage of what he considers a “good opportunity” in Saturday’s Sky Bet York Stakes.

A Group Two winner in France last summer, the Iffraaj colt has since been campaigned exclusively at the highest level and has run three fine races in defeat.

He was beaten just half a length into third place in the Champion Stakes in October and so far this term has finished fourth in the Lockinge at Newbury and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.

It is a measure of the regard in which My Prospero is held at Somerville Lodge that Haggas was underwhelmed by his most recent performance at Ascot and hopes he can make the most of having his sights lowered back in Group Two company on the Knavesmire.

“It’s a good opportunity for him. We think he’s in really good form so hopefully he’ll run a good race, I’m sure he’ll run well,” said the Newmarket handler.

“It’s one of those (trappy) races, but he’s very well and he should go well.

“I was a bit disappointed with his run at Ascot, he’s definitely better than that I think, but Saturday will tell us because he needs to be shaping up well here.”

My Prospero is a hot favourite to dispatch of four talented rivals in the hands of Tom Marquand.

Connections are looking forward to the belated return of the Owen Burrows-trained Alflaila, who won his final three starts of last season but has been sidelined since suffering an injury in Bahrain.

Angus Gold, racing manager for owners Shadwell, said: “It’s his first start since October, but he was a progressive horse last year.

“The funny thing with him is he’s by Dark Angel and out of an Oasis Dream mare and yet he stays a mile well and even a mile and a furlong.

“We’re going up again in trip to a mile and a quarter, but I don’t see that being a problem, it’s more a question of how rusty he is. He had quite an injury obviously, but he’s been sound and everything since he’s been back in training and we didn’t rush him and targeted this race.

“As long as he’s not too rusty, hopefully he’ll run a good race. It’s a trappy little contest and he’ll need to be at his best, but it will just be nice to get him back on the track.”

Royal Champion steps back up in grade after winning the Listed Wolferton Stakes at Royal Ascot.

“It’s a small field but it looks a good race,” said his trainer Roger Varian.

“He’s coming into it off the back of a win in a strong renewal of the Wolferton and he won it well, so he deserves his place in a race like this.”

The small but select field is completed by Mashhoor, who has won his last three races in Ireland for Johnny Murtagh, and William Knight’s outsider Checkandchallenge.

The latter was just over five lengths behind Royal Champion when seventh in the Wolferton and Knight hopes the application of headgear will enable him to raise his game.

“I just felt in his last couple of races he was getting a bit behind the bridle, so we’re putting the visors on to help him concentrate. He worked in them last Saturday and they seemed to do the trick,” he said.

“He’s well capable of competing at this level. At Ascot we were drawn wide and just got too far back and I think the flat track at York and the smaller field will suit him much better.

“The bit of ease in the ground will definitely help and he’ll go there and run very well, I’m pretty confident of that.”

Group One winner Dubai Mile has been ruled out for the rest of the season through injury.

The three-year-old was expected to make his debut for Martyn and Freddie Meade in Saturday’s Sky Bet York Stakes on the Knavesmire having joined from Charlie Johnston.

However, last season’s Criterium de Saint-Cloud winner suffered an injury during his final piece of work on Tuesday.

“We were preparing him to run in the Sky Bet York Stakes when he suffered a conjugal fracture on his near-hind fetlock, so it is an absolute tragedy,” Martyn Meade told the Press Association.

“We were giving him his last bit of work yesterday on our watered peat moss gallop, which was absolutely perfect for him, but it was just a complete freak accident.

“We managed to get him straight up Newmarket, where he has been operated on and it has been pinned. That appears to be a success.

“However, he is clearly out for the rest of the season, I would think. It always happens to the best horses. You wouldn’t believe it.”

The son of Roaring Lion progressed nicely through his juvenile campaign for Charlie and Mark Johnston.

Yet he had failed to build on that success in three starts this term. Although fifth to Chaldean in the 2000 Guineas, he was subsequently ninth in the Derby and finished eight lengths behind King Of Steel in the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Thereafter, he joined the Meades’ Manton Park Stud after a deal was secured to purchase a half-share in the colt from owner Ahmad Al Shaikh, with a view to a stallion career.

“We will have to assess how he recovers from that surgery and assess whether or not he will have a racing career or whether he will be going to stud,” Meade went on.

“It is heartbreaking really, also for Ahmed who is our joint-owner, who has been very good about it, I have to say. He has been very understanding.

“When it happens, it affects everyone, the lads who do them, they get very upset by it, understandably so. It is terrible for everyone. A huge blow.”

Dubai Mile could make his debut for Martyn and Freddie Meade in Saturday’s Sky Bet York Stakes.

The three-year-old progressed nicely through his juvenile campaign, topped by landing the Group One Criterium de Saint-Cloud last October for Charlie and Mark Johnston.

However, he has failed to build on that in three runs this term. Although fifth to Chaldean in the 2000 Guineas, he was subsequently ninth in the Derby and finished eight lengths behind King Of Steel in the King Edward VII at Royal Ascot.

Thereafter, he joined the Meades’ Manton Park Stud after a deal was secured to purchase a half-share in the colt from owner Ahmad Al Shaikh, with a view to a stallion career.

Freddie Meade says the son of Roaring Lion has settled in well at Manton and while he holds an entry in the Group One Bayerisches Zuchtrennen at Munich on Sunday, York could be the preferred option.

“We have left him the race in Munich, but I don’t think that will happen,” said Meade. “The possibility is we might go to York on Saturday for the Group Two.

“He seems to have settled in well. Everything seems good and he has fitted into the regime and everything.

“The York Stakes was what we earmarked as a starting point. He will definitely get the entry and we will see how he is through the week.

“The ultimate is to get another Group One with him if we can. We’ll start there and see where we go, but we are coming into the part of the season where he will maybe get his favoured soft ground, but he is pretty ground-versatile, it is just that his optimum is with a bit of juice in the ground.

“Hopefully he will be an exciting horse and that we can do some good with him.”

Kihavah may drop in trip for the Sky Bet York Stakes on Saturday week ahead of a potential crack at the Ebor next month.

Classic-winning trainer Adrian Keatley feels his stable star, who has a handicap mark of 98, may have to win another race to ensure a place in the Sky Bet-sponsored feature handicap.

Having won his previous four races, including once over hurdles, Kihavah finished a game second to Saeed bin Suroor’s Live Your Dream at Newmarket last week.

“We might run Kihavah at York as a prep run for the Ebor as he’s short a couple of pounds on 98, he might need another couple to make sure he gets in,” said Keatley, who won the 2016 Irish 1,000 Guineas with Jet Setting.

“He’s got his confidence back, he had a couple of issues with his wind in the past, which we’ve played around with, and we seem to have found the key to him now.

“It was a massive run last week at Newmarket but the rain came a bit soon as it just made it a bit loose. Half a mile from home I thought he had no chance, but he pulled it out of the bag again.

“He’s a very big horse, he was very lean when I got him but he seems to be holding his condition now and taking his training better. Hopefully if he gets into the Ebor, he could be a good representative for us.

“We were thinking of Market Rasen this weekend, but when you are talking of races like the Ebor being a possibility, we can always go back jumping later.

“He’s very much a top-of-the-ground horse and because the ground got so loose last week it was a harder race than expected, so that was another reason we missed Market Rasen this weekend.”

The Sky Bet York Stakes is on the final day of the Go Racing In Yorkshire Summer Festival which gets under way on Friday at Pontefract and concludes at York on Saturday week.

Alflaila will make his belated return from injury at York on Saturday week in the Group Two Sky Bet York Stakes.

The Shadwell-owned colt won four times from six starts as a three-year-old last term before sustaining an injury ahead of a run in Bahrain in November.

Trainer Owen Burrows feels he has had plenty of time to recuperate and thinks an outing on the Knavesmire, where he won the Strensall Stakes last August, will bring him on.

Though not having raced since defeating Ottoman Fleet in the Group Three Darley Stakes at Newmarket in October, he is entered in the Group One Juddmonte International.

Connections are keen to see if he will cope with 10 furlongs for the first time in his career, in preparation for a possible run at the top level in the August 23 contest at York.

Burrows said: “He will run in the Group Two at York on Saturday week. He was injured in Bahrain a few days before he was due to run.

“He has had his rehab back at Shadwell and touch wood it has all gone well.

“We have had plenty of time to prepare him and there was the Listed race at Newbury on Saturday or this race, and we’d have had a penalty in the Listed race, so we thought we’d have a punt and see how he fared in the Group Two.

“He won the Strensall at York, so he is a track winner and it would be nice to get him back on the track.”

Hukum, who made a winning return following a long injury lay-off in the Brigadier Gerard Stakes at Sandown, heads to Ascot for the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes on the same day.

However, Prix d’Ispahan winner Anmaat is set to take his place on the sidelines due to a foot problem that ruled him out of the Eclipse.

“Losing good horses (through injury) is what I think they call ‘character-building’,” quipped Burrows. “With Anmaat now likely sidelined for the rest of the season, I think I’ve done enough character-building for now.

“Hukum is in good form, though. It will be a big weekend for us, that’s for sure.”

Shadwell decided not to supplement Al Asifah into Saturday’s Juddmonte Irish Oaks at the Curragh, with no imminent plans.

The three-year-old daughter of Frankel, trained by John and Thady Gosden, was a runaway winner of a Goodwood Listed heat in June, before finishing a lacklustre sixth to Warm Heart in the Ribblesdale Stake at Royal Ascot 11 days later.

Angus Gold, racing manager to Shadwell, said: “We have left her alone since Ascot. We will just give her a little bit of time and will bring her back gently later in the season.”