Injury to star mare Snitzerland has left trainer Gerald Ryan with Hot Snitzel as his only runner in the BTC Cup.

But Ryan is confident Hot Snitzel has the right credentials to give the favourites a scare in Saturday's 1200-metre Group One sprint at Doomben.

Snitzeraland was ruled out on Friday morning after she was pulled up in a work-out with a suspected muscle problem.

Her stablemate has been solidly supported this week with a forecast for rain which has so far not eventuated to the extent predicted.

Hot Snitzel is adept in the wet but also effective on top of the ground and Ryan says he has a new-found maturity and has settled in better than on other interstate trips.

"He was a different horse this time when he got to the Gold Coast on Tuesday," Ryan said.

"It is his third visit to Queensland and he just settled right in. Hot Snitzel has also been to Melbourne a couple of times and I thinks he is used to the idea of travel.

"I was very pleased with him generally and the way he worked this week.

"I don't know if he can beat Buffering but he deserves a chance to win a Group One race."

Buffering is the $1.85 favourite to win his first home-town Group One ahead of Spirit Of Boom at $5.50 and Hot Snitzel at $7 in a field reduced to seven with Snitzerland's scratching.

Hot Snitzel won the 2011 Group Two BRC Sires' Produce and the Listed Ken Russell in Brisbane before running second in the Group One JJ Atkins Stakes (1600m).

A last-start winner of the Group Three Hall Mark Stakes (1200m) at Randwick, Hot Snitzel will be ridden again by Nash Rawiller.

If he performs as well as expected, the gelding will press on to the Doomben 10,000 and the Stradbroke Handicap.

His two-year-old stablemate Time For War will be on trial for bigger things when he runs in the Champagne Classic (1200m).

The winner of the Group Two Pago Pago Stakes and fourth in the ATC Sires' Produce Stakes, Time For War is one of nine individual two-year-old winners from the Ryan stable this season including Sires' winner Peggy Jean.