He doesn’t know where or when, but trainer Joe Pride is adamant Saturday’s Festival Stakes contender Miss Keepsake will win another black type race.
“The 1500 metres is short of her best but if she can get the right run off the pace, I reckon she’s one of those horses that’s going to win one of these races,” Pride said.
“I’m loathe to predict when it’s going to happen but I certainly think she’s got the ability to do it.
“She’s going to get it run to suit her one of these days and pop out with a couple of hundred (metres) to go and just blouse them.”
Miss Keepsake has not tasted success since her Group One Queensland Oaks triumph in the winter of 2010 although she has been placed four times at black-type level since then.
She will tackle the Listed Festival Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill on Saturday after being scratched from last week’s Frank Underwood Cup (1900m) due to the wet track.
Pride doesn’t expect the mare to have any trouble adjusting to the shorter race even though he believes her ideal range is between 1600 and 2000 metres.
“I’m not so specific in training my horses for different distances,” Pride said.
“I just have them fit and ready to go and they run well if the distance suits them.”
The Festival Stakes is a traditional lead up to the Group Two Villiers Stakes (1600m), run this year at Warwick Farm on December 17 while Randwick undergoes reconstruction.
The summer feature is on Miss Keepsake’s agenda with the possibility of then heading to the Listed Tattersall’s Club Cup (2100m) on January 2.
Many of her Festival Stakes rivals are also en route to the Villiers, although only two horses in the past 10 years have claimed the double – Utzon in 2006 and Ike’s Dream two years earlier.
Nathan Berry will ride Miss Keepsake who has a good draw in three and was at $13 with TAB Sportsbet on Friday.
In an open betting race, the Gai Waterhouse-trained King Lionheart was favourite at $5 ahead of last start winner Liteinthenite from the in-form John O’Shea stable at $5.50.
Trainer Ron Quinton has been given permission to wait until Saturday morning to name a replacement rider for Monton with Chris O’Brien ruled out of the meeting due to illness.
As of Friday afternoon there were no senior riders available and Quinton will wait until after official scratchings to name a rider.
AAP TURF
