"He's got a first rate chance," said Tim Palin of Betfred Ebor favourite Flymetothestars and it's hard to quibble with that assessment of the Middleham Park owned gelding.
There's no reason to believe that the Northumberland Plate third won't prove as effective on turf, especially given that his trainer Sir Mark Prescott is one of the shrewdest in the business, and the best should still be to come from this four-year-old who has had just five career starts.
This race has, predictably, been on the agenda for a long time but connections have stated for almost as long that he will need some cut in the ground to enable him to line up and the latest forecast doesn't suggest that the weather will play ball.
The market will obviously look very different if they do give the race a miss and the time feels right to play away from the market leader who has shown a tendency to race keenly which is another little niggle as well as the fact that he's done all of his racing on the all-weather.
There are no concerns about track or trip for NAKEETA who finished a fine second to Dal Harraild in a one mile six furlong Listed race here in June (Seamour was third) and is now 5lbs better off with the top-weight for three and a half lengths.
It is a slight concern that his latest second on the Knavesmire was the fifth occasion that the son of Sixties Icon has finished second since winning back-to-back races in 2015 but those races include the Chester Cup, Brown Jack Stakes and Ireland's November Handicap last season.
Click here for Sky Bet's latest betting on the Ebor Handicap at York.
That is top class staying handicap form in anyone's book and the six-year-old has had a much lighter campaign this season, almost as if it was being geared towards this target, running three times in a month in early summer.
He was too keen in the Chester Cup on his reappearance and again last time out at Newmarket when failing to build on his fine run at York where he had settled well for Paul Mulrennan. It remains to be seen who will be on board at the weekend but Nakeeta comes here a relatively fresh horse which may be no bad thing even though he has taken his racing well in the past.
Iain Jardine saddled Shrewd, also entered but needs luck to get a run, to finish second in this race last season so knows exactly what it takes to be competitive here and in three runs around the Knavesmire, Nakeeta has finished second twice and a relatively close-up fourth in a decent handicap.
A career best is needed but his performances at the backend of last season and this suggest that's not beyond the realms of possibility and he's started to attract support having been available at 20/1 up to around 6pm on Monday and 25s until just before 5pm.
That can only be encouraging and the general 16/1 is still worth an interest about this battle hardened competitor who may not yet have reached his peak.
Posted 2035 BST on 21/08/2017
