The passing of an unsung heroine

Sadly, champion harness racing broodmare Chaangerr (Vance Hanover / Nell’s Pride) was recently humanely euthanised, at the age of 33-years-old. 

Chaangerr was bred and retained to race by Brian Hughes and Alan Meadows, winning 6 races (5 at Alexandra Park) for stake earnings of $75,860. Her wins included a DB Fillies Heat and the NI Standardbred Breeders Stakes and she was also placed 2nd in the Group 1 DB Fillies Final, as well as placing 3rd in the Cambridge Gold Cup. In the 1994-95 season she was the NZ 4YO Pacing Mare of the Year. 

Chaangerr completed her racing career on a winning note, winning the 1995 NI Breeders Stakes, before embarking on her broodmare career. She had seven foals for Brian and Alan, before being purchased by Rob Carr and Don Kirkbride. 

The first foal Rob and Don bred from Chaangerr was the champion pacer and now successful sire Changeover, the winner of 29 races and over $2.4 million in stakes, being a 6-time Group 1 winner, whose wins included the NZ Trotting Cup in a world record time of 3:56.4, 3YO NZ Sires Stakes Final, Great Northern Derby, NZ Derby, Taylor Mile, Len Smith Mile, 3YO (Listed) & 4YO Harness Jewels – to be the first dual Jewels winner and the 3YO Australasian Breeders Crown Final. 

Rob and Don bred a total of twelve foals, three of these suffering accidents at an early age and having to be put down and one later in life when found to have a cancerous tumour. 

In total, Chaangerr had 19 foals, with 12 to race, for 11 individual winners, who between them have won an incredible 142 races to date. 

This feat meant that Chaangerr became one of an exclusive group of broodmare centurions, who have produced the winners of over 100 races. 

Unsung heroine Chaangerr achieved this rare feat on the 12th February 2016 at Gloucester Park when Change Stride brought up 100 wins for his dam and she ranks sixth on the all-time list of New Zealand centurion broodmares. What is just as amazing is that her progeny have amassed stake earnings of over $3.98 million; the highest of any of the mares above her on the centurion list. 

For good measure, with nine of her daughters having bred-on, she is also the granddam of 25 individual winners, with 127 wins and over $1.7 million in stakes and is also the great granddam of 36 individual winners, with 226 wins and almost $2.34 million in stakes. 

Rob and Don retained two of Chaangerr’s fillies for breeding; Changedown (Falcon Seelster) and Super Change (Mach Three). Changedown produced nine foals, with only one of these being a colt, the juvenile star One Change (Bettor’s Delight) who is a three-time Group 1 winner, having won the 2YO Harness Jewels and 2YO & 3YO NZ Sires Stakes Finals, to also be the 2019 NZ 2YO Pacing Colt or Gelding of the Year and joint 2020 NZ 3YO Pacing Colt or Gelding of the Year. He currently has 19 wins, for $696,486 in stakes. 

Chaangerr’s pedigree is certainly top draw, being a full-sister to one of New Zealand’s best pacers of the modern era in 9-time Group 1 winner Chokin, the winner of 34 races and over $1.8 million in stakes, whose wins included the NZ Trotting Cup, NZ Free-For-All, two Auckland Cups, two Miracle Miles, Victoria Cup, 2YO Young Guns Final, NZ 2YO Championship, 2YO & 3YO NZ Sires Stakes Finals and who is one of three millionaire pacers close up in this pedigree. 

Other notable winners of Chaangerr are Change Stride, who has paced a 1:50 mile in USA and is the winner of 46 races for stakes of almost $1.1 million and Change Gear who has paced a 1:52.8 mile in Australia and has won 22 races for stakes of $190,884. 

Chaangerr is also the third dam of NZ Messenger Championship and 4YO Harness Jewels winner Eamon Maguire, so in just two generations of this pedigree there are three individual Harness Jewels winners and another close relative in Fly Like An Eagle was a winner of the 2YO Harness Jewels of his year. 

So, Chaangerr’s legacy will live on, with her direct descendants of 85 individual winners, notching up 553 wins, for almost $8.6 million in stake earnings. 

Rob and Don are hoping to contribute further to the continuation of Chaangerr’s legacy and are currently racing the Lazarus 3-year-old filly Change Tact, who had 1 placing as a 2-year-old and is Changedown’s last foal and the Bettor’s Delight 2-year-old Final Change, who has had a workout placing at his only public appearance and who is a son of Super Change. 

by Harnesslink Media