By Warwick Barr

SYDNEY, Aug 26 AAP - Trainer Gerald Ryan says Golden Rose punters shouldn't read anything into a major gear change on query runner Hinchinbrook in Saturday's $1 million race.

Hinchinbrook will race without blinkers but will wear a cross-over nose band when he tries to become the first horse to win the 1400-metre Group One without a lead-in run.

Ryan said he declared a blinkers experiment with the star colt dead and buried long before Hinchinbrook returned to his Rosehill stable for a spring campaign.

Blinkers were applied to Hinchinbrook in the Golden Slipper and the Sires' Produce Stakes when the colt ran fourth and third respectively.

"I decided the blinkers were coming off him straight after the Sires' Produce (in April)," Ryan said.

"He doesn't need them ... he's a professional racehorse."

Ryan has been forced to cobble together a Golden Rose campaign for Hinchinbrook on the back of jumpouts and track gallops after the colt missed a vital lead-up run because of a minor virus.

The trainer had even publicly ruled the dual stakeswinner out of Golden Rose reckoning last week before a better than expected track gallop last Saturday swayed his thinking.

Hinchinbrook completed his unorthodox preparation for the first Group One race of the season at Rosehill on Thursday morning with race jockey Corey Brown in the saddle.

"The horse is in terrific condition and there was no need to do anything too serious with him," Ryan said.

"He dashed up over 400 metres in 25.5 (seconds) which is all I wanted."

Brown will be the sixth jockey to ride Hinchinbrook in six race starts.

"I was keen to get some continuity going this campaign and that's why I was happy when Blake Shinn said he would ride him right through," Ryan, who will also saddle up $71 outsider Top Drop, said.

But Shinn went looking for another Golden Rose mount on the premise Hinchinbrook was a lost cause for the race and will ride the Clarry Conners-trained Decision Time.

"It's not Blake's fault that he can't ride him," Ryan said. "It's my fault because I changed my mind."

With a favourable barrier in gate four and Brown in the saddle, Ryan said Hinchinbrook could be expected to enjoy an ideal run.

"I think he'll end up midfield with cover," Ryan said.

"If he hasn't got cover from barrier four then C Brown is not going to be riding him well is he?"

Hinchinbrook was easy in latest TAB Sportsbet, drifting slightly from $8 to $9 on Thursday.

Asked to name Hinchinbrook's biggest threats, Ryan said he thought the market order since Tuesday's barrier draw was a true guide.

Masquerader ($4.20) heads betting from the Golden Slipper winner Crystal Lily ($4.60) and the emerging Toorak Toff ($5).

Remarkably given Sydney's wet winter, the Rosehill track is expected to be presented in the good range and even a small amount of irrigation has been applied.

"We've had a fine week and it's amazing how a degree or two warmer (in the temperature) can do wonders for the track," track manager Lindsay Murphy said.

Providing the weather forecast is right, Saturday's meeting will be the first Rosehill fixture held on a good surface since Rosehill Guineas day on March 27.