KEY POINTS:
Northern stables have descended on Tauherenikau for today's listed Wairarapa Breeders Stakes and will be represented by nearly half the field for the $65,150 feature event for mares.
Matamata trainer Karyn McQuade did not think she could top the thrill of seeing Sent To Sea's last start win at Ellerslie. But a follow-up success today may just do it.
The race's added prestige would underscore why McQuade never lost faith in the mare when everyone else was jumping ship.
McQuade, who buried a winless career record at Ellerslie on January 12, always felt Sent To Sea needed only a change of luck.
The 2006 Concorde Handicap placegetter had become such a regular in stipes' reports, even her owners Frank and Faye Drummond were ready to pull the pin if fortunes didn't change at Ellerslie.
"They didn't want to keep taking her to the races for that to happen to her," said McQuade. "Ellerslie was her last go to be ridden properly, or she would have been retired as a broodmare."
McQuade says Sent To Sea had become field-shy from a string of mid-race bumps and scraps, a state accentuated by riders' continually burying her among the tailenders, against instructions.
Hopefully for McQuade and Sent To Sea's Breeders Stakes fans, Cameron Lammas changed all that with a confidence-boosting stalk-and-pounce ride at Ellerslie last time out.
"She'd been hammered around a bit in her last six or seven starts before Ellerslie," said McQuade. "But we finally saw her true-self coming through."
McQuade is the first to admit that won't be enough to scare Seachange.
But she is confident that a race like today's highlight race is well within the grasp of a mare who snubbed sire Keeninsky in their one and only date last mating season.
In her only other start over 1600m, Sent To Sea finished just over three lengths off Captivate in last year's group one New Zealand Bloodstock Thoroughbred Breeders' Stakes at Te Aroha.
From Sent To Sea's 11 gate today, Lammas has the option of pressing forward, or settling back.
"The instructions will be the same again; ride her where she jumps and turning for home get her in the clear," McQuade said.
In terms of black type assignments, Sent To Sea probably won't get an easier shot at boosting her broodmare value.
The group-placed Matamata mare Penny Florence should be the toughest to beat.
She was a runner-up in this race two years ago and had no luck last time out when trapped wide in the Rich Hill Mile.
The start before she ranged up as though she would win the group two Gasmate Stakes (1600m) at Te Rapa before weakening late for a close-up fourth. This race looks a lot easier, despite her outside gate.
Stephen McKee's Pams Pompallier hasn't won over the distance in three attempts but she has a ton of promise.
Sweet Caroline could represent value from a good draw.
Trained by Mike and Paul Moroney, she is in foal to Fast 'N' Famous and is out to get black type at her first 1600m run.
