John O’Shea has almost reached a point of no return to have some of the biggest names in the Godolphin stable up and running for the spring.

“As much as we’ve tried to protect them, the cotton wool has got to come off. They have to run now,” O’Shea said.

Godolphin’s plans have been affected more than most stables going into the early part of the spring carnival as it tries to plot comeback runs around Sydney’s wet weather.

O’Shea withdrew Golden Slipper runner-up Earthquake as well as Kumaon from last week’s Randwick meeting because he didn’t want to risk them on a heavy track.

And as rain continued in Sydney on Thursday, O’Shea scratched Ghibellines from the Run To The Rose.

The defection puts the Todman Stakes winner out of the reckoning for the $1 million Golden Rose and leaves Godolphin with two horses – Sarajevo and Kumaon – for Saturday’s $125,000 lead-up race.

In Sarajevo, O’Shea has a colt prominent in betting for the Golden Rose on September 13 and Saturday’s dress rehearsal is crucial because he needs to improve his position in the order of entry for the Group One.

O’Shea’s Run To The Rose pair are among six Godolphin horses left for Rosehill but O’Shea expects a lack of proper race conditioning to tell on most of them.

In a frank assessment, O’Shea said: “The only horse of ours on Saturday who merits consideration would be Sarajevo.

“But he finds himself with a wide gate in a race where there doesn’t look to be an abundance of speed.

“Against that he has to run because he needs another run before the (Golden Rose) to warrant consideration for the race.”

Gai Waterhouse’s Group One winner Almalad holds Run To The Rose favouritism as he bids to extend his winning sequence to four.

Rosehill received 19mm of overnight rain, bringing the total to almost 200mm since the heavens opened in Sydney last week.

But relief is in sight.

“The way the radar does look now I think we are over the worst of it,” the Australian Turf Club’s racecourse spokesman Lindsay Murphy said.