Seachange (NZ)

New Zealand's darling
10:29 AM Tuesday Nov 04, 2008

The best tribute to Seachange was paid by the large crowd that turned out at Hamilton’s Te Rapa Racecourse in February 2008 for her final race at home before her most ambitious campaign. 

The bonny mare with the imperfect off foreleg and the indomitable spirit didn’t let her fans down, winning her seventh Group One race, the Waikato Sprint.

She's raced against the best in the world and she's done us proud.

A month later she was in Dubai where she added two sixth placings to her record, the second in the Dubai Duty Free G1, before heading to England. There she signed off her brilliant career with a resolute run for fourth in the Newmarket Falmouth S. G1.   

Her owner-breeder Dick Karreman could look back on the previous three years with gratitude to the filly who had given him the perfect welcome to New Zealand racing and breeding.  Unraced at two, Seachange won her first six starts, including the CJC NZ One Thousand Guineas G1.

As a spring four-year-old she defeated the brilliant colt Darci Brahma in the first two legs of the Hawke’s Bay Triple Crown before going down to Legs and Kerry O’Reilly in the Ormond Memorial G1, beyond her preferred sprint and metric mile distances.

Then came the first of her four attempts to win at Group One level in Australia, a heart-breaking second in the VRC Empire Rose S. over Flemington’s stiff 1600-metre course on Derby Day.

The autumn in Melbourne proved more fruitful. A fifth in the MRC Orr S. G1 at Caulfield preceded Seachange’s Group 3 Mannerism Stakes victory on the same track. Two weeks later she added an outstanding second, beating subsequent Cox Plate winner El Segundo, in the MRC Futurity S. G1.

She returned home to prepare for her last and best season, which produced five wins, four of them designated Group One. All were special, but her performance to carry 58.5 kg in the 1200-metre WRC Telegraph H. G1, and win it by 3.5 lengths, in an eye-watering 1:06.66 was sensational.

Retired to stud after the Falmouth Stakes, Seachange returned home to win her second New Zealand Horse of the Award, before visiting Zabeel in the spring of 2008.

SEACHANGE 2002 brown mare
BREEDING	Cape Cross (GB)-Just Cruising (AUS) by Yachtie (AUS)
RECORD	28 starts from 3 to 6: 14 wins from 1200-1600m, 6 placings NZ$1,240,250, 386,A$299,000, £10,740, 400Dhs
BREEDER	Karreman Bloodstock Ltd, Cambridge
OWNER	Karreman Bloodstock Ltd, Cambridge
TRAINERS	Ralph Manning, Cambridge (Graeme Sanders, in England)
REGULAR JOCKEY	Gavin McKeon
GROUP ONE WINS	CJC New Zealand One Thousand Guineas, WRC Telegraph H., Waikato Draught Sprint, Hawke's Bay Challenge S.,-twice, Challenge S., -twice
AWARDS	New Zealand Horse of the Year, 2007, 2008 New Zealand Sprinter of the Year, 2008 People's Choice Award, 2008