Dazzling Dowager Queen Back In Style

High-class Savabeel filly Dowager Queen emphasised her readiness for a return trip to Australia with a spectacular last-to-first victory at Wanganui on Saturday.

She claimed the Listed Fillies’ Stakes with a cracking display in her return to racing following a break after the Queensland winter carnival.

The three-year-old was tardy away from the gates and settled at the tail-end of the field before rider Jason Collett asked her to improve across the top. Dowager Queen was widest into the straight and came with a sustained finish to mow down her rivals for a half-head decision.

Co-trainer Graeme Rogerson had excepted the 1200 metres to be too short for his charge and hoped she would be “able to get over the top of them.” His pre-race assessment was spot on and Dowager Queen will now head to the Melbourne spring carnival at the top of her game. “She’s got some Gr 1 racing in Australia now,” Rogerson said.

The filly will head toward the Thousand Guineas at Caulfield and a start in the Cox Plate is also still on the agenda. She has now won four of her 12 starts and is something of a racing rarity having beaten the older horses last season in the Listed Rotorua Stakes following her win in the Listed Great Northern Champagne Stakes. Dowager Queen also placed at Gr 1 level in Brisbane with fourths in both the Sires’ Produce Stakes and the T Smith Classic.

Raced by Rogerson and Max Whitby, she is out of the Pins mare Dower who won twice and was stakes placed in Australia in the Fernhill Handicap. She is from the Gr 1 family of Swick (Patinack Classic) and Cologne (Western Australian Oaks).