Manawanui will look to carry on their Golden Rose winning form in the Stan Fox Stakes

Ron Leemon says Manawanui isn’t being given the respect he deserves after his tremendous Group 1 victory in the Golden Rose two weeks back.

He says too much talk has been made about the dramas further back in the field and that the effort of his horse is being undervalued.

He plans to set the record straight this weekend though when he turns out for the Group 2 Stan Fox Stakes at Rosehill Gardens.

Leemon says the colt is progressing nicely after taking a few days to fully recover from the testing Golden Rose.

“He had a fairly quiet week last week, takes usually three of four days to get over a run,” he said.

“Today he had a good clean out for the race this Saturday coming.”

While he had a career best run to win at Group 1 level last start Leemon says the horse is still yet to peak for his spring campaign.

“He’s still tightening up…Glyn (Schofield) hopped off him this morning and said he’s definitely improved,” he said.

“He’s only still very inexperienced, he’s only had the five runs, still got a long way to go.”

Follow the Stan Fox Stakes this weekend Manawanui will head south for Melbourne where he will look to find a second Group 1 win.

He will be based at Caulfield so he has maximum time to get accustomed to the track ahead of the Caulfield Guineas.

“I’ve spoken to them and they said there’ll be no problems, they’ll look after us,” he said.

Leemon has once again rejected a purchase request form an overseas group which this time asked him to name his price.

“I’ve had one offer after that (Golden Rose), they asked me to put a price on him and I said no at this stage…all (offers are coming) from Hong Kong,” he said.

Leemon is trying to keep his feet on the ground for the time being knowing he has a rare opportunity with a genuine top liner.

“I try and keep it on a level plain, I just keep working and isolate myself from it all if I can,” he said.

The 2011 Stan Fox Stakes has just seven nominations however with Whisper Downs not travelling to Sydney there will be a maximum of six competing in the event.