Flemington trainer Anthony Freedman is considering the $50,000 Gold Nugget, 1600m, at Sportsbet-Ballarat on Sunday as the starting point for the spring campaign of imported Plein Ciel.
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The German-bred Plein Ciel has not raced since May, but has contest two trials at Cranbourne.
Freedman has also nominated the seven-year-old for the Tatura Cup for Saturday and Sunday's Coleraine Cup.
Plein Ciel, which is by far the highest rated among the 26 nominations for the Gold Nugget, charged onto the Australian scene in late spring two years ago in the stable of Darren Weir.
He won his first four starts - three on metropolitan tracks.
Plein Ciel has had five starts for Freedman, winning the group 3 Easter Cup at Caulfield.
Freedman has also nominated Japanese import A Shine Rook for the God Nugget.
Caulfield and Ballarat training combination Ciaron Maher and David Eustace have three entries for the time-honoured feature race, which launches the Ballarat Turf Club spring carnival.
They have nominated Kemono, Junipal and Kilimanjaro.
Flemington trainer Michael Moroney will be looking for improved from former New Zealander Gundown.
The five-year-old finished down the track first-up, but is nominated for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, and The Metropolitan in Sydney.
Ballarat veteran trainer Paddy Payne has entered last year's VRC Oaks third placegetter Miner's Miss and Shay Keating has Pufnstuf in contention for a start.
The BTC has programmed eight races, with track midweek rated a soft7.
The club has attracted 408 nominations with fields to be declared on Thursday.
