At a time of year when most trainers are taking their horses north, Queensland horseman Steele Ryan has headed in the opposite direction with juvenile Mega D'Oro.

The youngster arrived in Sydney last week to prepare for Saturday's TAB Early Quaddie Plate (1350m) with Ryan keen to bypass the stakes races in Brisbane during the winter carnival in favour of a softer assignment.

"The black type races here are pretty hard to win," Ryan said.

"He's a nice horse in the making. I want to run him over 1350 and then back up a fortnight later in Sydney over 1500 metres. There is no programming like that in Brisbane at the moment."

The last horse Ryan brought to Sydney for a Saturday meeting was Chinchilla Rose who won the 2007 Sweet Embrace Stakes and returned a year later to claim the Surround Stakes.

Both were at Randwick but Ryan is hoping Rosehill can prove an equally happy hunting ground.

Mega D'Oro finished fifth on debut at the Sunshine Coast in April before filling the same position in a 1200m Listed race at Doomben last start.

Ryan admits he had higher expectations of the colt but he is banking on a distance rise helping Mega D'Oro convert his trackwork promise into raceday performance.

"He looked a brilliant two-year-old to me early days," Ryan said.

"I am hoping he can stretch out to 1350 and 1500 metres at his next couple of starts, otherwise he will be in the disappointing class because he has shown me a lot.

"We're there to find out what we've got."

Mega D'Oro will be one of 11 runners with bookmakers posting Brazen Moss a slight favourite to give trainer Gerald Ryan his 11th individual two-year-old winner of the season.

Brazen Moss is one of four horses whose form is dominated by minor placings.

The Chris Waller-trained Country Warrior and Exalted Warrior for Gai Waterhouse have had six starts between them for six seconds.

Brazen Moss has raced four times and been runner-up on three occasions while Country Warrior's stablemate Sniper Fire has filled the minor positions at his only two runs.