Racing: Knobbly knees earn a knees-up

It was not what Gavin McKeon saw. It was what he sensed.

The Brisbane apprentice jockey had his faith in Seachange justified when she won the group-one $275,000 One Thousand Guineas (1600m) for three-year-old fillies at Riccarton.

Many would have questioned that faith beforehand. Seachange went into the race unbeaten from three starts but it was not with the hype that would normally accompany a horse with such a record.

Seachange had won her maiden race at Paeroa on September 17 well enough. But it was still only a maiden.

McKeon was aboard Seachange at Paeroa and he signalled the regard he held for the horse when delaying an intended one-month New Zealand stint by a week so he could ride her at Otaki on October 8.

The result was another victory but still the pundits were not getting carried away. But for McKeon it was more proof, and he made a special trip back from Brisbane to ride her at Trentham on October 22.

Once again it was another win, once again it seemed nothing flash. But McKeon was already booking his tickets for his return to New Zealand to take the One Thousand Guineas mount.

When asked, after Saturday's win, what attracted him to Seachange he replied that it was more about what he could feel in the horse - not what you see through the binoculars.

"She always found something without being under pressure - and that's a big thing," McKeon said.

Rick Williams, who manages the New Zealand racing and breeding affairs of the horse's Queensland owner, Dick Karreman, admitted he found it difficult to initially share McKeon's enthusiasm.

"He told us after he rode her to win for the first time that she was a very special filly," Williams said.

"I'm not so sure that I believed him at the time but he was determined to keep coming back to ride her."

Williams had doubts about the horse from the outset. He said he didn't even consider putting her through the sale ring as a yearling because of an offset front leg.

"Her legs were so bad I just put her out on the hills for 18 months," said Williams, who manages The Oaks Stud at Cambridge which was purchased by Karreman about three years ago.

"This filly's so bad in the off front leg you couldn't take her to a sale. She has an offset knee, ordinary fetlocks, all the things you don't want - she just runs fast."

Seachange is trained at Cambridge by Ralph Manning, who has been stunned at the way she has stepped up to every task placed before her.

"She's been amazing right through. From her first gallop she's won just about everything," Manning said.

He added that Seachange had an awkward galloping action because of her knobbly knees.

"You look at her legs and they go everywhere. But she has a great attitude, she travels, she eats, nothing fazes her. She has the most amazing temperament you would ever see."

Yesterday's win was the first at group-one level for both Manning and McKeon. Manning, however, has had his share of success at Riccarton.

At the age of 23 he became one of the youngest trainers to produce a New Zealand Cup winner when he scored with Oak Vue in 1987.

McKeon yesterday had Seachange, a $5.45 second favourite, racing outside the leader Smitten Kitten for much of the running and was in front early in the run home.

The challengers emerged from but Seachange did not flinch and she held her rivals at bay to score by three-quarters of a length.

Second was Everswindell who stormed home from third-last in the running while half a head away third was the favourite, Tsarina Belle. The latter had her chance after trailing the leader.

- NZPA