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By Ray Hickson

September is all about the Golden Rose and securing that valuable Group 1 for Don Corleone and co-trainer Paul Snowden is expecting the colt to show he’s on target in Saturday’s Group 2 $300,000 James Squire Run To The Rose (1200m) at Rosehill.

Trainer Paul Snowden (Pic: Grant Guy)

The son of Extreme Choice won on debut and contested four of the five two-year-old Group 1s last season for seconds in the Blue Diamond and Inglis Sires’, a fourth in the Golden Slipper and sixth in the Champagne Stakes.

Snowden said he couldn’t be happier with how Don Corleone has developed into the new season and hopes that translates into a win at the top level at three.

“He’s there to run in the Golden Rose and this is the first step toward that,’’ he said.

“He’s a bigger, stronger, horse there’s no doubt about that and his trials reflect how well he is going.

“His last couple of runs were on heavy and he’s not a horse that appreciates that type of going.

“He will run well Saturday, there’s definitely some improvement but he’s not far off the mark.”

Don Corleone, $7.50 with TAB on Thursday, has trialled twice ahead of his return and found himself taking on front-running duties when winning over 1000m at Rosehill a couple of weeks ago.

Snowden isn’t putting a lot of emphasis on the fact he led that trial, we certainly won’t be seeing him in front early in the Run To The Rose, but was more than pleased with how he strode out.

“They were stayers trialling so he was always going to lead them up,’’ he said.

“He doesn’t have that sort of gate speed over 1200m to do any damage up on the speed, he’ll be back midfield I’d suggest.

“Things can change when you get up to seven furlongs and he can get a little bit closer.”

One of Don Corleone’s major rivals on Saturday is Godolphin colt Cylinder, the Golden Slipper runner-up, and he heads the market at $4.50 for the Group 1 $1m Golden Rose (1400m) in two weeks. Don Corleone is on the $15 line.

Imported galloper Unspoken starts his second preparation for the Snowden partnership in the Ranvet Handicap (1500m) after two seconds from four attempts in his initial campaign down under.

Snowden said a small gear change could be the key to a breakthrough and he showed his readiness with a trial win over stablemate Tazaral recently.

“We put blinkers on his last few starts and he just got a bit too keen in the middle stages and I felt that took away a bit of his finish,’’ he said.

“So they’re off and on the back of his early runs last preparation you’d have to suggest he will run well fresh.”

Don Corleone wins Rosehill trial on August 22

Paul Snowden on Pierossa (race 5): “She was first-up at 1500m, she’s a 2000m plus horse and you watch her through the line she was very strong. She has no gate speed so she settles wherever she can depending on the tempo but she was doing her best work late which was good to see. The more sedate tempo it is the better it is for her because it gets her travelling and she has a better turn of foot.”

On Vomo Island (race 7): “It’s a very hard race and possibly contemplating not running but we’ve got to give him the chance to get up to a mile so he needs a 1400m run. You’ll get a good gauge on where he sits but most importantly to progress to a mile that’s what we’re hoping to achieve.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Rosehill meeting