Roger Charlton is confident Genki can make his presence felt in the highly competitive Blue Square Duke Of York Stakes on Wednesday.

The seven-year-old enjoyed a fine campaign during 2010 and looked better than ever when striking gold in Listed company for the first time at Newmarket last month.

He takes a step back up to Group class at York in the first major Pattern-race sprint of the season on British soil, but Charlton believes he will be an even better horse than he was at Headquarters on his reappearance.

“I was pleasantly surprised he managed to win at Newmarket, as I thought he would need the run that day,” said Charlton.

“He’s in great shape now and I hope he’s improved for that first run of the year, although he’ll need to if he’s to win tomorrow.

“It’s a tough race but I hope he has a very good chance.”

Andrew Balding has a fascinating contender in the shape of Dalghar, formerly trained in France by Alain de Royer-Dupre.

The five-year-old is already a Group-race winner and his new trainer is looking for a decent performance from him at York to set up a trip to Royal Ascot.

“He’s a very nice horse to have in the yard and we’re looking forward to running him, but he will sharpen up for the run,” warned Balding.

“He’s as fit as we can get him at home, or at least he’s done as much as we’d want him to at this stage of the season, but I think he’ll come on for it.

“His main target is the Golden Jubilee at Royal Ascot, but he has a high level of form and hopefully he’ll run well at York.

“He’s not the most flamboyant of workers at home but he does everything nicely. I’m sure he’d stay seven furlongs, but I’m not sure he’d want to go any further than that.

“We’ll stick to six furlongs for the time being and see how it goes.”

The David Nicholls-trained Regal Parade was a slightly disappointing fifth on his first start of the year at the Curragh, but the trainer’s son and jockey Adrian expects an improved showing tomorrow.

“We were a tad disappointed with his first run but the ground was so bad – I would say it’s the worst ground I’ve ridden on,” said the jockey.

“He likes a bit of cut in the ground, but it was so heavy that day and in hindsight it wasn’t such a bad run.

“I’ve ridden him work the last few weeks and he’s come on for that run. I’m glad to see they’ve had a bit of rain and the ground should be similar to how it was when he won the Sprint Cup at Haydock last year. I certainly wouldn’t swap him.”

Rain Delayed has been beaten just half a length on his last two appearances, but his trainer Michael Dods admits being drawn in stall one is a concern.

“He’s very well but I’d rather be drawn in the middle than down the outside,” said Dods.

“He’s a horse who likes to travel in behind horses and get a bit of cover and that is going to be difficult from where he is. You need to make a few manoeuvres and that is not going to be easy in a top-class race like this.

“The other question is whether he’s as good over six furlongs as he is over five. We think he’s really a five-and-a-half furlong horse.”

Richard Fahey’s Rose Blossom has won twice at the track and champion jockey Paul Hanagan is looking forward to seeing her return to the track.

“It’s a really tough race but I couldn’t wish for her to be in better form and I’m looking forward to riding her again,” said Hanagan.

Prime Defender was a surprise winner last year, but his trainer Barry Hills does not know what to expect this year.

He said: “He knows more about the game than all of us, so we’ll see what happens”

Delegator is an interesting player for Saeed bin Suroor, dropping back to sprint distances having shown top-class form over a mile.

The trainer told www.godolphin.com: “Delegator has shown a lot of speed in his races and I think that six furlongs is the right distance for him to try now.

“He worked well on Sunday morning and he is in good form at the moment.

“He will improve for his first start of the season, but I am looking forward to seeing him run a nice race.”