The three-year-old progressed from winning a Swan Hill maiden first-up to being a two-time listed winner and finishing second in the group 3 Carbine Club Stales, 1600m, at Flemington and the group 2 Sandown Guineas, 1600m.

Weir is now considering stepping the son of Stratum into group 1 company in the autumn.

Stratum Star is nominated for the $500,000 Australian Guineas, 1600m, at Flemington on March 7 and the even bigger assignment of the $1m Australian Cup, 2000m, at Flemington a week later.

Weir has also nominated two-time VOBIS Gold feature race runner-up Profit Share for the Guineas, and Akzar and US import Tonopah for the Australian Cup.

Tonopah is unbeaten in two starts for Weir.

Akzar continues his campaign in the Doriemus Handicap, 2000m, at Flemington on Saturday.

The Irish-bred stayer has had two starts this campaign, with a hard-finishing second to Jacquinot Bay over 1600m at Flemington on January 10.

Tonopah chases a hattrick of wins in the Patrobas Handicap, 1720m, at Flemington.

Australian Guineas entries also include the Robert Smerdon-trained Fontein Ruby and Henry Dwyer’s unbeaten Lucky Liberty.

Other Australian Cup nominations feature the Dwyer-trained Sonntag.

The Caulfield-based Dwyer has principally used Ballarat as a base for education and pre-training youngsters, but is beginning to use the satellite stable more for training horses during their racing campaigns.

Sonntag is the latest to fit into this category for Dwyer.

Before getting to the autumn, Weir and Smerdon are first focusing on the Tasmanian Summer Carnival, with the group 3 $225,000 Hobart Cup, 2400m, on Monday, February 9 first cab off the rank.

Weir has nominated Akzar and Tooleybuc Kid, while Smerdon has Cooldini and Oerter among entries.

Tooleybuc Kid also makes an appearance in the Doriemus Handicap, 2000m, at Flemington on Saturday.

david.brehaut@fairfaxmedia.com.au