Queens Rose and The Filly renew their rivalry in the Crockford Real Estate 1400 at Tauranga on Saturday.

The mares have run the quinella at their last two outings with the score a win apiece. Saturday's $25,000 race could well register the identical quinella and then the arch rivals will travel slightly different routes.

The Filly, inside, beats I Do in a Group III career highlight last September. Photo: Race Images.

Graham Richardson is banking on Queens Rose taking a big step forward in condition with Saturday's race serving as her lead up to the Group I Makfi Challenge Stakes at Hastings.

But while the Matamata trainer concedes his star winter mare goes into this weekend's assignment shy of peak fitness, he isn't ruling out a winning run.

"She's full of beans," Richardson says. "Her work this morning [Thursday] was outstanding - she did a little bit because the track will be testing on Saturday.

"I just hope it is nice and loose because that suits her. She's a bit fresh because she hasn't had a race for six weeks.

"She'll improve with this race because of the layoff but she's had a trip away when she went to New Plymouth [for the Opunake Cup] the day they called the races off."

Queens Rose's last run was at Tauranga on June 20, when she turned the tables on The Filly from their previous race at Ellerslie in taking out the Listed Tauranga Classic (1400m) by a long neck, a win that qualified the O'Reilly mare for the Makfi Stakes (1400m) at Hastings on August 29.

"She's not a big horse and the question mark this weekend is the 58 kilos she has to carry but there's not a big weight spread," Richardson says.

"The Filly is a good horse and she'll be hard to beat. We beat her at weight-for-age last time and it is level weights again this weekend."

A winner of eight of her 20 starts, Queens Rose loves heavy going after winning five of her eight starts in the wettest track conditions and collecting $135,090 along the way.

Richardson is hoping to strike conditions to suit for the Makfi: "All going well she'll go to Hastings after this but she will want it wet down there."

Raced on lease by an enthusiastic syndicate, they have recently had their agreement with the owners extended for another season.

"They are a very good syndicate and love their racing so it will be exciting for them to have a crack at the Makfi."

The Filly is one of New Zealand's best wet track sprinters and her 10 wins, six on heavy tracks, have accumulated a healthy $252,950 for her owner and trainer Murray Neal.

Her pinnacle success came on a Dead 4 surface in the 2014 Group III Rich Hill Stud Taranaki Breeders Stakes, beating Makfi heroine I Do.

In that form she is hard to beat wherever she goes and her Cambridge trainer believes he has her on the right path. A pulled muscle caused a hiccup in her campaign but Neal is happy heading into Saturday's race with jockey Mark Hills in the saddle.

"Depending on Saturday and her stepping up, which I expect her to do, she will then go to the Foxbridge Plate which she ran third in last year," Neal says.

"Rain is predicted and it will be a slow track at Te Rapa and if I get it right, she'll be right in it. She's learned how to race this year and is much more settled in her races.

The Group III Lisa Chittick Foxbridge Plate is over 1200 metres at Te Rapa on Saturday week and is expected to attract a number of gallopers preparing for the first Group I of the season, the Makfi Challenge Stakes on August 29 at Hastings.

And all going to plan, The Filly will be there to renew her rivalry with Queens Rose.