Talented colt Dothraki has taken the first step towards fulfilling a prediction of his trainer Gerald Ryan with victory in the Group Three Gold Coast Guineas.

Dothraki ($7) won Saturday's 1400m race by a head from Safeguard, trainer Peter Snowden's final Darley runner in Queensland.

Ryan said he had always rated Dothraki one of the most promising horses in his stable.

"I have been saying all along he could be a Stradbroke horse as a three-year-old," Ryan said.

"That was the first step but we will run him in the Fred Best Classic and then the Queensland Guineas."

"The Guineas is ballot free for the (Group One) Stradbroke Handicap so it is the right way for us to go."

Ryan said Dothraki had a bad habit of wanting to pull up when he hit the lead in his races.

"You saw it again today. When he gets to the lead he wants to pull up," Ryan said.

"Glyn Schofield rated him one of the best horses he had ridden early in the horse's career apart from that habit."

Ryan said he had lost confidence on Saturday when the track was wet.

"He had three previous starts on a wet track and never been placed," he said. "But he had a bit on them."

Safeguard rattled home late to just fail to cap a great day for Snowden who hands over the reins of Sheikh Mohammed's Darley operation to John O'Shea on Sunday.

Snowden went out with three winners on the Hawkesbury program.