"You know I don't listen," Ford grinned, for he had just brushed aside instructions to sit back on the outside and opted to charge forward on the inside en route to victory.

Fair enough, thought Dryden, a trainer who has weathered enough of these fresh Autumn days at the track to know plans are best left in the hands of a jockey.

Which is why Dryden will leave Nash Rawiller to plot his own path to victory onboard Handle The Truth in the 1100 metre Ortensia Stakes at Rosehill racecourse on Saturday.

"It's all up to Nash. I almost took him to the 1300m, but I decided to give him one more run on the shorter trip," Dryden said.

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"Nash will work it out, I don't have to give him any instructions, I'm not riding it. Those good jockeys just make their mind up.

"Nash won for me at Rosehill once, and the stewards had called me asking to know how the horse was going to be ridden, I don't ride it, he does.

"No matter what I tell him, he's going to do what he wants to do, and that horse won. I don't weigh jockeys down with too many instructions, I never have."

Ex-Queanbeyan horse Noble Boy, which was taken off trainer Todd Blowes and sent to Clare Cunningham's Sydney stable, is in a field Dryden says has "eight or nine chances to win".

A prize of $52,500 is on offer for the victor which would be a huge boost in a bizarre time for the racing industry in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dryden says it has been "business as usual" at the stables but concedes he is disappointed for the owners who have been unable to see their horses in the flesh.

"They put up the money and they can't go to the races or come to the stables and see the horses," Dryden said.

"For the owners, I just wonder how long they will continue to keep their horses in work when they can't go and see them.

"It's alright if you've got a horse that's earning prize money, they don't mind so much then. But when you've got a horse that is more or less regularly running between fifth and 10th and the people just do it for fun, if they can't go, there is no fun.

"I wonder how long that will keep up. But overall I think the racing industry has done a pretty fair job."