The 2yr-old filly Dowager Queen is set to race under weight-for-age conditions in the listed $45,000 Rotorua Stakes at Rotorua on Saturday.
The Rotorua Stakes is over 1400m for fillies and mares.
Dowager Queen has 46kg. Lisa Allpress has been engaged to ride Dowager Queen. She is one of the few jockeys who could make the weight.
Dowager Queen won the Champagne Stakes (1600m) for 2yr-olds at Ellerslie at her last start on April 16 when ridden by James McDonald. The daughter of Savabeel and Dower is trained by Graeme and Debbie Rogerson.
"She [Dowager Queen] has been working great," Rogerson said.
He said it would be the first time he had raced a 2yr-old filly at weight-for-age in 41 years as a trainer.
Dowager Queen and the 3yr-old, Fleur de Lune, were elevated into the field in view of their form in group races.
The 3yr-old Fleur de Lune finished third to Barinka and Smoulder in the New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders' Stakes (1600m) at Te Aroha at her last start on April 9. She has won three of her six starts including a 1200m maiden at Rotorua in January.
Juice is the most recent 3yr-old to win the Rotorua Stakes. She was successful in 2009 when the race was run at Te Aroha.
Juice is an acceptor on Saturday.
What Can I Say (1998-99) has won the race twice and Alley Oop won the Rotorua Stakes three times in succession from 1981. She was a 3yr-old in her first win. Others of that age to win the race are Ramora (1984), Cool Deal (1986), Cupri Rose (1991), Chase A Fortune (1994) and Posing (1997).
Dean Nowell could not recall a 2yr-old racing against older horses at weight-for-age in his 30 years as handicapper for New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing.
It was not uncommon when the North Island Challenge Stakes (wfa, 1400m) was run at Trentham in March. The fillies Jocasta (1975), Wood Court Inn (1969) and Weenell (1968) won the race after a 2yr-old had not been successful since Beau Vite in 1939. Jocasta carried 44.5kg, the other two 46.5kg. Jocasta was trained by Bill and Graeme Sanders at Te Awamutu. Syd Brown trained Weenell and Wood Court Inn at Woodville.
Coober's Queen won in 1979 with Jim Cassidy carrying 43.75kg.
The 3yr-old filly We Can Say It Now won the group one Captain Cook Stakes (wfa, 1600m) at Trentham in December when ridden by Allpress at 51kg. We Can Say It Now was retired to stud after she was unplaced in the Australian Guineas in March. She won four of her nine starts and $250,000.
