Owned by Sheikh Mohammed Obaid, UAE King is bred in the purple being a Frankel half-brother to super-stallion Dubawi, and he opened his account at the fourth time of asking over 1m4f at Haydock last month.

With the third having won comfortably since, UAE King looked feasibly treated for this transition to handicaps and so it proved as he fended off last-time-out course and distance winner Machine Learner by three-quarters of a length.

It was not all plain sailing for the strapping bay with distinctive white markings, who had to be nudged into the bridle by Andrea Atzeni as the tempo lifted down the back straight, but he made up his ground nicely on the climb to the line and always looked to be doing enough.

Roger said: “UAE King is still a work in progress and while he has improved with each visit to the racecourse, he is still babyish at times and is learning his trade.

“He certainly has the pedigree and looks to develop into a nice horse in time and so long as Sheikh Mohammed Obaid is in agreement, I would like to keep things low key with him at this stage.”