Queen Regent scored one of the biggest Black Type upsets of last season and the team involved in her won’t have to wait too long for another crack at taking big odds in a feature race.
The Blake Ryan-trained filly is slated to resume in this Saturday’s $200,000 Listed The Rosebud at Rosehill, her first start since a blowout win in the Woodlands Stakes at Scone in May.
The daughter of Wild Ruler started $151 at Scone, after $201 was earlier bet, and $51 is available about her in all-in markets ahead of this week’s race.
The Rosebud will be Queen Regent’s first start as a three-year-old and Ryan knows taking on the boys presents a new challenge, but said this was the level he now had to look at with the star of his Hawkesbury stable.
“There’s nowhere to hide anymore – she’s a Black Type winner, so you’ve got to run in them,” Ryan said.
“I’m confident that she’s improved and strengthened. Where that leaves her, we’ll find out Saturday.”
The Woodlands Stakes was only the second start for Queen Regent, who’s debut resulted in a fourth placing in a 1000m Hawkesbury maiden just over a month earlier.
She finished sixth in her only trial this time in but was beaten less than 1-1/2 lengths by Hostwin King, who is a potential rival on Saturday.
Ryan would have preferred to stick to her own sex with Queen Regent for the first-up run, but he would rather tackle the boys over 1100m than resume at 1200m and said The Rosebud would give him a better idea of what the remainder of the campaign might look like.
“She’s only had the two starts, one at 1000 and one at 1100, but you come back into spring and all the fillies races kick off at 1200, whereas the colts get two cracks at 1100 – Saturday and the San Domenico (Stakes),” he said.
“I didn’t really want to go to 1200 first-up when I don’t know if she can get it.
“So, I thought we’ll go to The Rosebud and, if she measured up, then we’ll go three weeks into the Furious.”
The $300,000 Furious Stakes, a Group 2 race for fillies over 1200m, will be run at Randwick on September 5.
Queen Regent is one of 25 entries for The Rosebud, with potential rivals including spruik Chris Waller-colt Central Europe, Blue Door and Castillo King – who have both won their only start – as has Chilly Girl, who is trained by Ryan’s father Gerald and his training partner Sterling Alexiou.
