Keppel Queen
£2299 per 5% Share +
£200 Per Month Training Fee from 1st June
The six-year-old Black Sam Bellamy mare Keppel Queen is based with leading NH trainer Olly Murphy in Warwickshire and looks a winner waiting to happen.
Sourced by Deva Racing’s Ryan Tongue at the Goffs Spring HIT/PTP Sale, Keppel Queen has yet to win in 11 starts but demonstrated a decent level of ability when based with Jonjo and A J O’Neill. Having finished a promising fifth in a Uttoxeter bumper on her debut last July, she embarked on a hurdling campaign the following month and soon qualified for handicaps.
Making her debut in that sphere over nearly 3m at Chepstow in November, she was prominent for a long way before finishing second. Another runner-up finish would follow over 3m½f at Carlisle the same month, and it seemed only a matter of time before Keppel Queen would shed her maiden status. However, she was given a short mid-season break and returned in a 3m1½f handicap chase at Warwick in January, but didn’t enjoy the experience and fell at the third fence.
Thankfully, that did little to dent Keppel Queen’s confidence, and she has finished no worse than fourth, including two silver medals, in four subsequent starts over hurdles. She most recently took second in a 2m7f Class 4 handicap hurdle at Worcester in the middle of May and looks primed to win from her current official rating of 104 sooner rather than later.
A closer look at Keppel Queen’s form underlines just how well-handicapped she might turn out to be. When third at Chepstow in March she had two subsequent winners in behind, while her aforementioned second at the same track in November came in a race that featured five horses who have won since. All of them finished behind Keppel Queen.
In addition to the substance of her form, Keppel Queen is also blessed with a tremendous NH pedigree. She is a half-sister to the Listed-placed chaser Dorking Lad and out of the Definite Article mare Brookville, a placed full-sister to the Listed-winning chaser Fistral Beach and a half-sister to the multiple Listed-winning hurdler/chaser Rons Dream. This is also the family of the five-time Gr.2-winning hurdler/chaser and Gr.1-placed Wahiba Sands.
A talented and consistent mare with her best years in front of her, we can’t wait to see Keppel Queen on the track in Deva Racing colours for her new trainer. It shouldn’t be long before she is winning races.