KEY POINTS:
Queensland owner Dick Karreman's group one roll continued when Keepa Cruisin won the $240,000 Levin Classic for 3-year-olds at Otaki yesterday.
It was Karreman's third group one win for the season after the wins of Seachange in the first two races of the Hawke's Bay spring weight-for-age treble and it's been a case of keeping it in the family. Keepa Cruisin is a half-sister to Seachange who has been the star mare in New Zealand for the past few seasons.
Karreman did not see the win but was on the phone to his racing manager Rick Williams soon after.
"He said 'unbelievable, what a race, what a horse'. He was thrilled," Williams said.
Keepa Cruisin, by Cambridge Stud sire Keeper, has some similarities to Seachange.
"She showed a bit early but I never felt she had the brilliance of Seachange.
"But she had her other qualities of toughness and constitution."
Keepa Cruisin had won one of her previous nine starts but had a succession of placings in top company.
She was twice second to the promising filly Lovetrista and filled a similar placing behind Insouciant in the Two Thousand Guineas (1600m) at Riccarton on November 10.
Keepa Cruisin's trainer Stephen McKee said that race probably improved the horse.
"That was her first run at a mile (1600m) and being a hard run it probably brought her on for this."
McKee said Keepa Cruisin would probably be restricted to races no further than 1600m unless racing against her own sex.
"Probably a mile will be her best distance. She could go further against other fillies but essentially she's probably a miler."
- NZPA
