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But ground conditions could rule out leading contender Dance Fever.

George Margarson's Ropey Guest could benefit from soft ground when he lines up for the Victoria Cup at Ascot on Saturday.

The son of Cable Bay became the highest-rated maiden in training last season when hitting the frame in a string of Group contests, but found a first victory elusive until winning on his 13th run at Chelmsford in August.

Margarson now intends to head for Ascot's Victoria Cup at the weekend as the four-year-old makes his seasonal reappearance and runs for the first time since being gelded in November.

"He's been trained with this race in mind," the Newmarket trainer said.

"He seems to run his best races at Ascot and he ran well fresh last year.

"He was fourth in the Jersey Stakes last year first time out, so he's ready and any rain will be to his advantage.

"He's been working so well that we've been tempted to run him a couple of times, but I decided to take him there (Ascot) ready to run."

Ascot are currently describing the ground as good to soft, and Margarson is not concerned about the further rain forecast throughout the week.

"It wouldn't matter how much more rain we had, when he was second in the Group Three down here at Newmarket (Horris Hill Stakes), it was very soft ground that day.

"Then he's shown good form on fast ground at York as a two-year-old, but I do think that if it went soft it'd be to his advantage, rather than a few of the others."

A satisfactory performance could put the bay on track for the Buckingham Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, a seven-furlong handicap that was removed from the Ascot programme to make way for the Commonwealth Cup in 2015 but was reinstated last season and will remain a part of meeting since its expansion to seven races per day.

"He'll go from there to either the Buckingham Palace, or one of the new mile races they've put on at Royal Ascot," Margarson said.

"The Buckingham Palace, we've been second in that three times when it was on, but they took it away for the sprint race.

"That would probably be his next target after this, depending on what he does here."

Dance Fever is towards the top of the market for the seven-furlong feature – but unlike Margarson his trainer Clive Cox is not enthused by likely ground conditions. The four-year-old was last seen finishing second over a mile at Ascot back in July,

Cox said: "He's not going to want any rain, I'm afraid, I've just checked the forecast now and it does look a bit ominous.

"He's a top of the ground horse, I'm very happy with the horse but he's going to need conditions dry enough to take part."