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Callum Shepherd is looking forward to getting back onboard Quddwah in the mile Prix de Montretout at Longchamp on Thursday.

The duo teamed up to land the Summer Mile Stakes at Ascot last season before creditable fourth and fifth place finishes behind last year's European Champion miler Charyn in the Group 1 Prix du Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard Jacques le Marois and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Champions Day.

"He went to Chelmsford for a gallop last week and went well," said Shepherd.

"For a Listed race, it's not maybe the soft contest I might have expected with Haatem and Marhaba Ya Sanafi, who was obviously a winner of the Poule d'Essai des Poulains, both in there.

"That said, Quddwah has a high level of form, and this will be a nice prep for the Queen Anne at Ascot, where he has an excellent record having only been beaten there once on very bad ground on Champions Day."

The son of Kingman will face six rivals at Longchamp on Thursday, including the Richard Hannon-trained Haatem, who finished placed in both the English and Irish 2000 Guineas as a three-year-old before landing the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Having finished only fifth behind Dancing Gemini following nearly a year off at Sandown on his reappearance last month, connections are hoping to see plenty of improvement.

Richard Brown, racing adviser to Wathnan Racing said: "It looks a hot race to me, there's a French Guineas winner (Marhaba Ya Sanaafi), Quddwah for the Crisfords has shown good form and Narkez, it's more like a Group 2,"

"He needed the run on his first start back and William (Buick) looked after him. The idea was to come here and have a confidence booster, but it's not that simple!

"Hopefully he'll run a good race, and we'll find out where we're at with him, but this is a pretty serious Listed race."

The home challenge is made up of Andre Fabre's Narkez, Andreas Schutz's Classic winner Marhaba Ya Sanafi, Christopher Head's new recruit Start Of Day, Siam Paragon and Quasar.