Joe Pride isn’t getting carried away by Miss Keepsake’s first-up Kembla win, especially when star mares More Joyous and King’s Rose await at Rosehill on Saturday.
Miss Keepsake will take aim at the Group One Queen Of The Turf Stakes (1500m) but Pride admits the 2010 Queensland Oaks winner isn’t suited under the weight-for-age conditions over 1500m against the likes of More Joyous and King’s Rose.
Five-year-old Miss Keepsake returned with an impressive two-length win in good time in the Bert Lillye Memorial (1300m) at Kembla Grange on March 25.
Pride is aiming her at feature races over the Brisbane winter carnival, the scene of her biggest win when formerly trained by Andrew Scott.
“She was beautifully placed the other day but this is pretty ambitious,” Pride admitted.
“She got the job done in good style first-up and she’s a mare I want to be running in this grade of race, just not at this distance at this carnival.
“She’s building up towards something in Brisbane, possibly the Doomben Cup.”
Pride said Miss Keepsake had been tricky to place.
Her victory at Kembla was her first since winning the Oaks in Queensland almost two years earlier.
“She’ll run a cheeky race on Saturday but it’s a big jump in class,” Pride said.
“She’s a tricky horse to place because she won a Group One and a lot of fillies and mares races are set weights and penalties.
“She’s better suited in handicaps but they are not that easy to find without taking on the boys.”
More Joyous won the Queen Of The Turf last year with ease and is odds-on favourite to make it back-to-back successes on Saturday.
Pride rates the five-time Group One winner as the horse to beat.
“You’d be mad not to say More Joyous (was the one to beat) but I’ve got a healthy respect for a number of mares including King’s Rose,” Pride said.
“They are two of the best mares going around.”
Pride went close to winning the Queen Of The Turf Stakes in 2006 when Regal Cheer was second to Mnemosyne.
