Naqeeb has been declared to run in this weekend’s £200,000 Knavesmire feature, which is scheduled for 3.10pm.

The half-brother to brilliant champion and 2022 Juddmonte International winner Baaeed, will be Yorkshire trainer Julie Camacho’s first-ever runner in the famous race.

Five-year-old Naqeeb has been steadily supported in the ante-post betting and connections are looking forward to having a tilt at lifting the unique Wedgewood trophy and banking the six-figure purse.

The gelding last ran in the mile and a half Duke of Edinburgh Handicap at Royal Ascot where jockey Ryan Sexton partnered him to finish a very creditable third of 18.

Now he is brought back in distance to an extended mile and a quarter for the first time since finishing second in a maiden race at Newbury in May, 2023.

It’s an intriguing move and one which could play to the strengths of Naqeeb if the likely end-to-end gallop unfolds in the latest staging of the John Smith’s Cup.

Norton-based Camacho said: “We’d bought him originally to be an Ebor horse. But we haven’t put him in and decided we want to try a mile and a quarter.

“We were delighted with his run at Ascot. We always felt – and my brother Matthew, who does all the analysis and everything, felt – that he was worth a try at a mile and a quarter. And we just thought this was the race to try him.

“We’re excited to try him at a mile and a quarter, to be honest. He travels strongly in his races. And if we’re wrong, we’re wrong – we just go back up to a mile and a half with him.”

The rise in temperature looks set to give Naqeeb his favoured underfoot conditions.

Camacho added: “Fast ground is what he wants. He doesn’t want soft.

“Ryan, unfortunately is not available, so Kevin Stott takes over.”

The Camacho team look set to be represented at meetings all over the country on an extremely busy day for Flat racing. But Julie is hoping to be on the Knavesmire for Naqeeb’s big day.

She said: “It’s our local track – a track we all want to do well at. We’re really looking forward to it.”

A field of 19 will line up in the John Smith’s Cup, which is the third contest in a seven-race card.

York’s two-day meeting gets underway tomorrow with the opening William Hill handicap at 2.10pm.