If Buffering can win the Group One Moir Stakes he will join two champions of Australian sprinting to have passed $5 million in stakes.

The eight-year-old is $120,000 short of the figure but Friday night's $270,000 first prize money cheque would put him in elite company.

Black Caviar, who amassed $7.95 million, and Takeover Target with earnings of just over $6 million, are the only Australian-based sprinters to have passed the prize money milestone.

Three-time Melbourne Cup-winning stayer Makybe Diva is Australian racing's prize money record holder with more than $14.5 million.

Buffering, a four-time Group One winner, suffered a ligament injury which forced him to miss the Brisbane winter carnival.

He makes his return in Friday night's weight-for-age sprint for which he is third pick at $7 behind two fillies five years his junior - Petits Filous and Fontiton.

Buffering's trainer Robert Heathcote is full of admiration for the gelding who is set to kick of his sixth spring carnival campaign.

"I think why he's endeared himself to the racing public so much is he's just so enduring," Heathcote said.

"He's raced Black Caviar, Hay List, Sepoy, Sea Siren, Foxwedge, a lot of pretty good sprinters and here's Buffering at the age of eight still lining up in a Group One and considered to be a genuine chance.

"He's quite an extraordinary little racehorse."

Buffering is the defending Moir Stakes champion but the race drops from 1200m to 1000m for the first time since 2006.

He also won in 2012 - the final year it was a Group Two - and was second in 2013 to Samaready.

He will be striving to become the first horse to win the Moir three times.

Buffering was the only Queensland-trained horse to have won a Group One race last season, a feat Heathcote hopes will clinch the gelding his fourth Queensland Horse of the Year title when the award is announced on October 12.

The Ciaron Maher-trained filly Petits Filous is unbeaten from four starts and is the $2.20 favourite for the Moir and at weight-for-age carries 7.5kg less than Buffering.

Fontiton, who also has 51kg, is at $4.80.