Regally bred colt Rubick is building up to an early spring return with trainer Gerald Ryan keeping Group One options open.

The winner of the Blue Diamond Prelude, Rubick finished fourth in the Group One Blue Diamond won by Earthquake at his third race start.

Ryan said the Encosta De Lago colt out of Sliding Cube would run first-up in the San Domenico Stakes (1100m) on August 16 but it would be his next start in the Danehill Stakes at Flemington which would determine the rest of his campaign.

"The Coolmore Stud Stakes in November is the aim but the Danehill will tell us how well he handles the straight course," Ryan said.

"If he seems like he needs to run around a turn then we can change plans."

Ryan said he was about to step up the workload for Rubick, one of 11 individual two-year-old winners for the stable so far this season.

"He has put on weight and is more mature," he said.

"I'm looking forward to the spring. Some of the other two-year-olds are in pre-training so hopefully they make the step up to being good three-year-olds."

At the other end of the age scale, eight-year-old Ironstein is coming to the end of his career but still has a couple of races left in him.

The gelding finished fourth in Saturday's Ipswich Cup (2150m) anchored by top weight of 58kg.

Ryan has next month's Grafton Cup pencilled in as Ironstein's swan song and his lead-up will be either the Caloundra Cup or the Winter Cup in Sydney.

Ironstein won the 2010 Caloundra Cup before running third to Twin Wing in that year's Grafton feature.

"He has pulled up really well from Ipswich so we will keep going towards Grafton," Ryan said.

"We haven't decided yet whether he runs at Caloundra or comes back for the Winter Cup."