This year’s Golden Rose is a fascinating one, with one key form reference being the Run to the Rose which provides eight of the 13 runners, and then a handful of very different formlines converging into the one race.

Cylinder was the only one in the Run to the Rose who had bad luck of any kind, kept in a pocket for the best part of 300m in the straight while every other horse had clear running to attack the line if they were good enough. When the split finally came for Nash Rawiller on board, he was able to accelerate quickly enough to win. The front-runners couldn’t deny him, and the backmarkers couldn’t catch him.

King Colorado is the only one in the field that has taken on the older horses, running an unlucky ninth when beaten just under two and a half lengths in the Winx Stakes. He should have finished even closer to the likes of Fangirl, Princess Grace, Osipenko, Think It Over, Zaaki and company, horses that have already stood up in both Melbourne and Sydney’s WFA ranks this season. The Maher/Eustance camp do things their own way, with great success, so second-up five weeks between runs shouldn’t be a concern, and he is a known quantity at seven furlongs and beyond.

Charm Stone comes up from Melbourne, for the Price/Kent combination, who are looking to go back-to-back in this race after preparing Jacquinot for victory last year. She’s won two good races against the fillies down there, carrying big weights and drawing wide both times. She gets an inside draw now, but will need to see out a strong 1400m.

The beautifully bred Shinzo is the x-factor runner of the race, particularly given he is a Golden Slipper winner resuming, but also for the fact that he is the only horse hitting the race first-up, so we haven’t seen him as a three-year-old. It’s a very unusual path for Chris Waller to take, hitting such a big race like this without a lead-up run or two, so we have to take it as a sign of confidence. Maybe he just blows them away?

The speed map looks a messy one, with no horse considered an out-and-out leader. Most of these have raced handy at different stages, but have also gone back, and the barrier draw hasn’t helped shed any light either. Golden Roses are usually run quickly though, so the winner will have called on their reserves of stamina in the last 200m of the race.

Selections: 1.King Colorado 2.Shinzo 3.Cylinder 4.Charm Stone