KEY POINTS:
A meeting today will decide whether Seachange tackles the $200,000 Otaki Maori Weight-For-Age or heads straight to Dubai.
The betting on it is straight to Dubai $1.25, Otaki $7.
Yet neither option is ideal for New Zealand's outstanding mare, who gutsed her way to her seventh group one victory in the Waikato Draught Sprint at Te Rapa on Saturday.
That remarkably tough win highlighted the concerns the Seachange camp have about getting her fit for the US$5 million Dubai Duty Free on March 29 with less than ideal lead-up races.
Keeping Seachange at top fitness has never been easy and it was clear she was below that level when she had to tap into her deep well of courage when hotly challenged by Kay's Awake in the closing stages on Saturday.
The sight of Seachange blowing heavily after being unsaddled underscored trainer Ralph Manning's fears that the mare might even have been too fresh for the race - Manning knew she was too fresh, but he meant too fresh to win.
Increasingly, Seachange takes an extraordinary amount of work for a thoroughbred and the easy week she was given after her dominating first-up Telegraph Handicap win had proved almost impossible to catch up on. She seemed anxious and almost a little ratty in the pre-race parade and raced a little more on the bit than usual
There was relief all round.
Now the camp has the problem of sorting out lead-up races for the mare and trying to keep her fit in quarantine, where she will almost certainly have to work without the aid of a galloping partner.
"We could run in the Otaki race, which is on a Friday and that would mean putting her on a plane on the Monday," said ownership manager Rick Williams.
"She normally has three days in the paddock after each race, so it's not exactly ideal.
"Then the Dubai lead-up race is 13 days after the Otaki race. You have to fly there, settle in and get organised and if something went wrong like a touch of travel sickness you wouldn't have the opportunity to make up the time."
The positive factor is the availability of Irish jockey Ted Durcan to ride Seachange in both Dubai races.
Williams expects to hear back in the next few days regarding quarantine arrangements.
Part of the quarantine regulations require horses from each country to be allotted a time slot for their work.
The English horses might work between 7.00am and 7.30am, be cleared off the track and the horses from the Unites States will work between 7.30am and 8.00am.
The only time the international horses are allowed in proximity is on race night.
When Sunline was in Dubai for the same race Seachange is targeting, she was scheduled to do her daily piece of work after 9.00am.
It was too hot at that time and Trevor and Stephen McKee were given permission to switch, but the only prior time available was before the others worked and Sunline was on the track at 4.00am.
When Sunline had her final gallop it was minus 4 degrees Celsius after four hours earlier at midnight being plus 30 degrees Celsius.
Saturday proved yet again that you can spend all you like on raceday promotion, nothing attracts the crowd better than topline racehorses.
The Seachange fan club lined the birdcage rail all day and winning rider Gavin McKeon went back out after weighing in for the high-fives.
"She's a horse that can make people happy, said McKeon, who was likely having his last ride on her.
McKeon admitted he was nervous when he looked up at the in-field screen and saw it was Kay's Awake chasing him down from the 200m.
He's ridden Kay's Awake and knows how determined the Matamata mare can be.
"I knew we were going to have to be pretty tough."
Kay's Awake's trainer Peter McKay won't be disappointed to see Seachange board an international flight. His mare thoroughly deserves her first group win and there's no doubt that's going to be a lot easier to achieve with Seachange out of the way. * Bruce Herd knows this quote sounds silly.
He even apologised for it before he made it. "Sir Slick probably needed that run," said Herd after 3-year-old Mission Critical played Sir Slick at his own game and beat him in the $200,000 Whakanui Stud International.
Herd was quick to make the point that he didn't in any way want to take the glory away from Mission Critical, who shot his hand up strongly for the $700,000 Mercedes Derby.
Mission Critical essentially did a Sir Slick on Sir Slick, leading him up and running a strong late 600m sectional that made it difficult to pick him up.
It was a lovely piece of riding by Michael Coleman.
"I ambled across from the start and Bruce didn't seem to be in a hurry to take it up, so I pressed forward and he allowed me to cross him easily," said Coleman.
Herd said he was always confident of picking up Mission Critical.
"My bloke was cruising at the 600m and on the home turn I was still certain I'd run past the leader.
"Then at the 150m he hit a wall, well, a Sir Slick wall anyway."
Co-trainer Graeme Nicholson has always maintained Sir Slick will pull himself up when conditions don't suit and Herd believes the fact that the million dollar earner did that when the "watered" track upset the Thorndon Mile became a fitness issue for Saturday.
But Mission Critical looked the fittest he's looked all season and now he's starting to mature mentally he's heading towards being the one to beat in the Derby.
The connections of some 3-year-olds might be nervous about the 2400m, but not the Mission Critical camp.
"He'd run the 2400m tomorrow," said Michael Coleman.
"Despite what he'd done today, he was the last horse to pull up in the back straight."
Co-trainer Paul Moroney said plans to run Mission Critical in Saturday's Championship Stakes at Ellerslie will probably be dropped in favour of the horse doing a couple of gallops on the course to further familiarise him with the course.
Fiscal Madness didn't help his chance by racing too fiercely and was caught in the last stride for third by South island mare Ombre Rose, who was extremely game after also racing keenly.
