Explosive Scene's second in a Highway Handicap on his last trip to Sydney is looking a lot better now and he will come back to try to improve on that effort.

The five-year-old finished half a length behind King's Officer - who has won four Sydney races in quick succession - over 1500 metres at Rosehill in June.

"He went really well," Explosive Scene's trainer Marc Quinn told AAP.

"We were just unlucky we ran into King's Officer."

The Port Macquarie trainer then took Explosive Scene to Grafton where he ran fourth in a benchmark 65 race.

"He probably could never have beaten the winner, but he possibly should have run second," Quinn said.

"That was a really good run and he's pulled up well from that so we're going to go down to have another look at another Highway."

Explosive Scene will return to Rosehill for Saturday's TAB Highway Handicap (1500m), restricted to horses trained in the country.

He will be ridden by Quinn's former apprentice Andrew Adkins, who has now joined Ron Quinton's stable at Randwick.

Explosive Scene qualified for last year's Country Championship final, running eighth to Artlee on a heavy Randwick track.

Quinn is preparing another of his runners, rising three-year-old Cogliere, for the 2017 Country Championships.

The promising colt, who has had two wins from eight starts and been placed twice at Rosehill, is out having a spell.

"He needs a nice spell to help him develop and grow a bit," Quinn said.

"He's probably not quite up to the spring three-year-olds."

"We decided to give him a good spell and we'll bring him back and probably aim for the Country Championships early in the new year," Quinn said.