Dubai: There is significant Dubai interest on day 3 at Royal Ascot, with several contenders carrying the hopes of leading Emirati owners at Britain’s famous flat-race meeting.

Perhaps none more than Epsom Oaks (Group 1) runner-up, Wild Illusion, who is the ante-post favourite to win the Ribblesdale Stakes, a fillies contest run over a mile and four furlongs.

A progressive daughter of Dubawi, Wild Illusion represents in-form Godolphin handler Charlie Appleby who got his Royal Ascot campaign off to a bang when Blue Point scorched home in the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes on Tuesday.

Wild Illusion was beaten 4 ½ lengths by Forever Together in the Oaks at Epsom on June 1, but Appleby believes that she’s ready to make a quick return to action and that she can actually win.

“She’s in great order. She looks fantastic and she’s training well,” the trainer told the Godolphin website.

“Was it a difficult decision to back her up quickly after Epsom? No, not at all. She’s come out of the race well, and if she can repeat her Oaks performance she will be very hard to beat in the Ribblesdale.”

A field of 10 fillies, including Sun Maiden, Magic Wand and Athena, have been declared for the Ribblesdale, first run in 1919 and sometimes referred to as the Ascot Oaks.

Meanwhile, Dubai businessman Mohammad Jaber’s ageless galloper, Sheikzayedroad, takes on some of Europe’s best stayers in the Gold Cup, Britain’s most prestigious races for stayers, which is run over 2 miles 3 furlongs and 210 yards (4,014 metres).

This will be the nine-year-old son of Dubawi’s third consecutive appearance in the race, having finished sixth behind The Big Orange 12 months ago.

However, the horse that looks the one to beat is the Aidan O’Brien-trained Order Of St George who is bidding to clinch a second Gold Cup after 2016.

The Ballydoyle handler, who is bidding for a record eighth Gold Cup victory, said in a stable tour on www.attheraces.com: “Everything has gone well with him since his last run at Navan.

“We are as happy with him going into the Gold Cup as we have been with him in any of the other years he has gone there.”

John Gosden is also bullish about the chances of Stradivarius, winner of the Queen’s Vase at last year’s Royal meeting who went on to win the Goodwood Cup later in the summer.

A high-class stayer, Stradivarius was narrowly beaten in the St Leger after taking third in Ascot’s Long Distance Cup in October.

Gosden said: “He’s in great nick and he has come out of his win at York very well.

“It will be a helluva test — the two and a half miles. Once he goes beyond two miles, it is uncharted territory.

“We are very hopeful he will get the trip. If he doesn’t, we know what we will do — we will go to a Goodwood Cup and prepare for a Melbourne Cup.”

Looking at the rest of the field the trainer added: “Order Of St George is obviously a good horse, as is the Aga Khan’s horse [Vazirabad] and the horse that won the Sagaro [Torcedor].

“It’s got great depth in it this year. So often the Gold Cup can be a little bit thin on quality, but there is a lot of depth there and it’s an exciting Gold Cup this year.”