The timing is a little different but the mission remains the same for Darci Be Good who begins his Hawkesbury Gold Cup defence at Rosehill on Saturday.

The five-year-old will use the Listed Winter Challenge (1500m) as his only lead-up to the provincial feature which has been brought forward from November to August 22.

Last year Darci Be Good went to Hawkesbury at his fifth start of the preparation and trainer Bede Murray is hopeful he has done the necessary work to be able to repeat his win with just one run under his belt.

"Saturday will tell us where his fitness levels are," Murray said.

"He is a horse who has had a lot of problems over the years with his hind cannon bones and we have tried many different things and I think we have now got it right.

"He is a lean horse who doesn't carry much excess weight so that is a help.

"I think he is pretty fit. He has had a couple of racecourse gallops at Kembla Grange so hopefully that has been enough."

Darci Be Good's best form was as a three-year-old when he won three races and finished second to Doctor Doom in the Group One Spring Champion Stakes.

His leg problems hampered his 2012 campaigns until he showed his best in the Hawkesbury Cup.

The date of the Hawkesbury Cup (1600m) was changed to make the race a better fit leading into other major provincial Cups at Wyong and Newcastle next month.

The Hawkesbury and Newcastle Cups are targets for another Winter Challenge contender, Ironstein, who goes to Rosehill off the back of a close barrier trial second last week, beaten a nose by Julienas.

Trainer Gerald Ryan is pleased with the eight-year-old who, like many of the progeny of Zabeel, shows no signs of age.

"He is bouncing on and off the track like a three-year-old," Ryan said.

"After Saturday he will go to the Hawkesbury Cup then on to the Premier's Cup over 1800 metres at Rosehill and then the Newcastle Cup.

"The Queen Elizabeth in Melbourne is again the plan. He has run his two best races in that."

The winner of almost $1 million, Ironstein won the 2011 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2600m) at Flemington and finished second last year to Puissance De Lune, the reigning Melbourne Cup favourite.