Sunshine Coast trainer John Zielke will pay a late acceptance fee to get his progressive filly Royal Tithe into the Thousand Guineas field in Melbourne this spring if she runs well in this month’s Prelude.

Reigning Queensland 2YO of the Year Royal Tithe will debut in Melbourne in the Thousand Guineas Prelude on September 24. Photo: Daniel Costello.

A nicely-bred daughter of Show A Heart, Royal Tithe has had one run as a three-year-old when third in handicap against her own kind over 1500m at Eagle Farm on August 6.

She was defeated under half-a-length in a blanket finish by the winner Beloso in her 13^th career start.

Well-tried as a juvenile and recently crowned Queensland’s two-year-old of the year, Royal Tithe has been tested in Black-Type company four times to date in Queensland including her Gold Coast win in May’s Group 3 Ken Russell Memorial Classic (1200m).

As a 17/1 outsider, she beat home Oink and Impending in the Ken Russell who both run in the $1 million Group 1 Golden Rose Stakes (1400m) in Sydney this Saturday.

Three unplaced runs during the Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival followed for Royal Tithe however, who didn’t get back into the winner’s stall until July 23 over the Doomben mile.

Showing an affinity for 1400m – 1600m, Zielke is hoping to get the best out of the filly during her first interstate raid this Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival over that distance range.

He plans to run her next-up on September 24 at Caulfield Racecourse in the $200,000 Group 2 Schweppes Thousand Guineas Prelude (1400m) on the back of a Cranbourne jump-out this coming Monday.

Her performance in that will determine whether or not Zielke and connections at Dovedeen pay the late entry for Royal Tithe into the $500,000 Group 1 Schweppes Thousand Guineas (1600m) on October 8.

“I’ve been able to win a race at Flemington both previous times I’ve come down [for the spring] and there’s no reason we can’t win a couple of three-year-old races this carnival,” Zielke, who also has two Makybe Diva Stakes Day runners this Saturday at Flemington including Dreams Aplenty in the Group 2 Danehill Stakes (1200m), told The Courier Mail.

The Thousand Guineas Prelude has produced the past two Thousand Guineas winners with Amicus (2^nd in 2014) and Stay With Me (6^th in 2015).

There are currently 111 fillies among the Thousand Guineas first acceptances taken at the start of the week.

The Chris Waller-trained Omei Sword leads the all-in Thousand Guineas markets at Ladbrokes.com.au at $4.

She runs this weekend looking to become just the second filly to win the Golden Rose Stakes and is second favourite for the Rosehill Gardens classic behind Run To The Rose winner Astern.

While Waller is yet to rule out either the Thousand Guineas or Caulfield Guineas against the colts and geldings for Omei Sword, he is leaning towards an October 1 run the Saturday prior at Randwick in the $500,000 Group 1 Flight Stakes (1600m).