The toughest $2m Kosciuszko so far: Keith Dryden

It's why he wants the muddy Randwick track to dry out as much as possible by Saturday to give Handle The Truth his best chance of winning the $2 million Kosciuszko (1200 metres).

He's one of two Canberra hopes in the feature race, with Matthew Dale's Cavalier Charles the other to make the field.

Dale felt it would dry out from the current heavy rating to soft by race day, with a mostly dry week forecast for Sydney - although there's the chance of some rain on Friday.

It will be Handle The Truth's fourth crack at the $2 million race, having won it in 2019 before finishing second and fourth the past two years.

He's a $9 shot according to bet365, behind $4.50-favourite It's Me.

Dryden was expecting his seven-year-old gelding to get a hefty weight, which was why he wanted the track to firm up as much as possible by race day.

Especially since he was expecting the best ever edition of the race since its inception in 2018.

"I prefer it to be as dry as it possibly can because we're probably going to get plenty of weight," Dryden said.

"Those wetter tracks tend to suit the lighter horses.

"This is probably going to be the best Kosciuszko that's ever been on, the strongest one anyway.

"Just looking at it from my point of view, it looks a very strong race this year. You're going to need all the breaks and things to go your way."

He'll once again have Nash Rawiller as his jockey.

The Sydney hoop has ridden him in all three previous Kosciuszko runs, as well as Handle The Truth's win in the listed National Sprint last year.

Dryden was able to get a gallop in for his stable star at Canberra's Thoroughbred Park on Friday before the rain set in.

"[Rawiller has] rode him nearly every start. He's won the Kosciuszko on him and he rode him in the last two Kosciuszkos," he said.

"So he knows the horse well and he won the National Sprint on him.

"I missed a barrier trial with him last Friday with the races being called off, but the club made the course proper available to me to gallop with two other horses so he hasn't missed any work.

"So hopefully he'll be right at his peak on the day."

Dale has Nick Heywood on board Cavalier Charles ($21), with the Wagga Wagga jockey having ridden all but one of his five wins.

He said it was a great chance for the young hoop, who had the biggest win of his career so far saluting on Another One in the NSW Country Championships in April.

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"Happy to have Nick on and great for him to get that opportunity on a big day," Dale said.

"He won the country championships earlier in the year on Another One, which was his biggest win.

"This would clearly be the biggest opportunity in his career so far for sure."

Dale hoped the track would dry enough to fall into Cavalier Charles' sweet spot.

The six-year-old gelding has three wins and two places from his six starts on a soft track.

"They've got drying conditions for the rest of the week predominantly and hopefully it can get back into a soft-range, which would be outstanding for everyone involved," Dale said.

"It'd certainly be the preferred racing surface for us.

"We're looking forward to it. We set him towards and readied towards this day from the start of the preparation.

"His run was really good first-up and very happy with the way he's ticked over since."

Meanwhile, due to all the rain, the Queanbeyan races scheduled for Tuesday have been moved to Goulburn instead - where they were forced to abandon Sunday's meeting.

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