"It's a lot easier to get out of bed in the morning," he quipped.

The trainer shifted to the Gold Coast about three months ago with wife Carly so he could complete a post-graduate degree in psychology at Bond University.

After giving a few of his horses to south-west trainers and selling a couple of others, he was left with two to train in the sunshine state.

One of those was Royalaz, which recorded a victory in the Fujitsu Australia Class 6 Plate (1200m) at Doomben on the weekend.

"Now we'll be looking at some of the better quality races up here with him," Ryan said.

"He'll probably run at Doomben in two weeks, then after that there is the Weetwood Handicap (1300m) at Toowoomba.

"It's a $150,000 listed race.

"They've got a track like our Warrnambool training track."

Ryan's university course finishes in about two months, with the trainer planning on returning home soon after.

"It just depends on Royalaz," he said.

"The Queensland Carnival starts around then so if there's races which suit him, we might stay a little while longer.

"Hopefully we'll come home with him for the Wangoom Handicap (1200m)."

The trainer said he was coping with both his study and training commitments.

"One balances the other one," he said. "The race track is just down the road from uni so I can go back and forth pretty easy."

Ryan, who trained 2008 Warrnambool Cup winner Video Star, has been doing a variety of work with Royalaz.

"I've just been riding him on the roads and doing some swimming," he said.

"Obviously there's not as many beaches here that you're allowed to work horses on."

The other horse in Ryan's small stable in Queensland is Larson.

"He had been running most weeks," the trainer said. "He ran on the first day of the Magic Millions and pulled up sore, so we retired him to the apprentice academy (Traintech)."