Waikato Stud believe their ultra consistent stallion Ocean Park (Thorn Park) has again emphatically proved himself a sire under the radar after the trans-Tasman Oaks double of a filly who’s incredibly lucky to merely be alive, Ohope Wins.
Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) winner Ocean Park is a rising 18-year-old whose books of mares have gradually diminished in recent years in the wait for another top-liner after his second-crop stars Tofane and Kolding, who won four and three top-tier events respectively.
But his other numbers are holding up extremely well.
Ocean Park, who covered just 50 mares at $15,000 (plus GST) last spring, sits third on New Zealand’s general sires’ table in his tenth season of runners, behind only past champion sire Proisir (Choisir) and the all-time great Savabeel (Zabeel). That’s a hefty improvement on his career-best finish of 14th in just his fourth campaign.
His four stakes winners in New Zealand also constitute a personal best – one more than his high recorded in 2020-21 – a season which remains his finest in Australia by stakes-winners (seven), when Tofane and Kolding were peaking.
And with Ohope Wins putting his name back in the spotlight by becoming just the fourth filly to complete the New Zealand Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) – Australian Oaks (Gr 1, 2400m) double, Waikato is justifiably hopeful of a boost to Ocean Park’s covering numbers this spring, if not perhaps back to his all-time high of 189 in Covid-tainted 2020.
“I really think he’s a bit under the radar, perhaps more so than being underrated,” Waikato’s general manager Mike Rennie told ANZ News.
“His stats have never been below four per cent stakes winners to runners, or 60 per cent winners to runners, since I’ve been at Waikato, and that’s almost eight years.
“And he’s always had the capacity to breed a top horse, which we’ve seen with Tofane and Kolding, and a few others.
“He’s still got some decent books coming through now. His progeny are probably mostly post-Christmas three-year-olds and onwards, which was when he hit his straps as a racehorse.
“So, he’s always been there or thereabouts, his stats have been rock solid, even when he hasn’t had a big, big year. And he’s always had a good one out there, and from a range of distances too.
“It’s comforting this season that he’s doing exactly what we know he can. He’s very consistent. You know what you’re going to get when you breed to Ocean Park. Like anything, you’ve got to probably breed him right a little bit – send the right mare and the right nick, and you’re never going to be far away, especially at $15,000.
“I think Pins and the Danehill line are two notable nicks. Makfi has stepped up there as well, and Sadler’s Wells.
“He’s a medium-sized horse and a good mover. If you can put a bit of scope and oomph in, that’s probably the ideal type of mare.
“But in saying that, his smaller ones are stakes winners too. His biggest trait is he leaves very tough horses.”
Pins (Snippets) is Ocean Park’s most common nick and his most successful for stakes winners of more than eight runners, with 37 winners from 57 starters, and six stakes victors at 10.5 per cent.
Danasinga, Fastnet Rock and Redoute’s Choice – all sons of Danehill (Danzig) – also rank highly, as does Sadler’s Wells’s son High Chaparral. And Makfi (Dubawi) has provided one runner for one Group 1 winner in Kovalica, who like Kolding and Ohope Wins, was trained by another major fan of Ocean Park in expat New Zealander Chris Waller.
Ocean Park’s five elite-level winners have scored at the top level from 1400 metres – for all four of Tofane’s and one of Kolding’s – to the 3200 metres of Auckland Cup hero Ocean Billy, when that race was still a Group 1 in 2021.
Of his 26 career stakes winners – from 615 runners at 4.2 per cent – eight have come in the 1001 to 1200-metre range.
Ocean Park’s four stakes winners this term have come in a neat progression.
They started when six-year-old gelding Mystic Park took Riccarton’s TAB Mile (Gr 3, 1600m) in November, before three-year-old filly Tellum won Ellerslie’s Eight Carat Classic (Gr 2, 1600m) on Boxing Day.
Two more Group 2s came on the one afternoon at Te Rapa on February 7 when Autumn Glory won the Waikato Guineas (Gr 2, 2000m) three races before Ohope Wins claimed the Sir Tristram Fillies Classic (Gr 2, 2100m).
That pair illustrate big-spending Yulong’s faith in Ocean Park. Ohope Wins was having her first start in Zhang Yuesheng’s colours, while Autumn Glory would days later join the green and white army, which also purchased Tofane for $3.1 million after her penultimate start, at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale of 2022.
And Ohope Wins, trained by Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott, would step up to provide Yulong with Group 1 gratification in her next start after the Fillies Classic, taking the New Zealand Oaks by 2.2 lengths.
After a transfer to Sydney and Chris Waller and a fourth in the Vinery Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m), on Saturday she joined the select NZ-Australian Oaks double club, alongside Pennyweka (Satono Aladdin) in 2023, Bonneval (Makfi) in 2017, and Domino (Grosvenor) in 1990.
Showing her high rating, Ohope Wins also started a $2.60 favourite, despite that blemish in the Vinery.
Bred by long-term Waikato clients Bill and Jim Gartshore, Ohope Wins is the standout among four named foals for her placed Australian dam Choux Mania (Redoute’s Choice). The 12-year-old mare was perhaps due to leave a quality performer – her first three named foals being unplaced – given that she’s a three-quarter sister to top-flight winner Miss Wilson (Stratum) and a half-sister to five-time Group 1 victor Jimmy Choux (Thorn Park).
And it’s a chilling thought that the best of the bunch, by rights, shouldn’t be here at all.
All had seemed normal with Ohope Wins’ birth on September 1, 2022, until a couple of days later, Rennie recalls, when Waikato staff noticed she was listless. This grew worse when the newborn filly suddenly collapsed.
She was rushed from Waikato to the Matamata Veterinary Services (MVS) hospital, where it was found she was suffering a slightly delayed case of neonatal isoerythrolysis, better known as NI.
The condition means the antibodies a foal needs from her dam’s colostrum in the first 24-72 hours of life – which are usually crucial in protecting a foal – are in fact destroying the newborn’s red blood cells.
“It’s not very common,” Rennie said, “and it means the mare’s antibodies are attacking the foal’s immunity, rather than helping it.”
At the MVS hospital, the situation looked grim. The markers the foal Ohope Wins returned through blood tests were desperately low. In fact, the hospital had never seen a foal with such low readings survive the condition.
But survive she did, perhaps showing signs of the toughness she now displays on the racetrack – and which could well have been passed on by her sire.
“One thing about Ocean Park’s horses is they’re very tough, really gutsy,” Rennie said. “Lots of them win by small margins because they guts it out from a long way out, like he did himself. They do a lot with what they’ve got.
“They’ve got great cardiovascular capacity, and mental toughness.
“What’s happening with Ohope Wins is amazing, because she really shouldn’t be in this world. It’s a credit to the team at Waikato and the vets at MVS that she survived.
“The staff saw the foal collapse and she just about drowned in a puddle. They scooped her up, got her onto a trailer and onto a float and got her to MVS, who were very proficient and fast, and managed to stabilise her.
“She had some of the lowest stats for any foal to survive the condition the clinic had seen. But thankfully, she came good, came back to the farm and grew out. We always thought a lot of her, so it’s great to see her doing what she’s doing now.
“Everyone knows about the trainers and the owners of horses, but they don’t necessarily know the backstory. The group at the farm and the MVS clinic saved Ohope Wins’ life. It’s a real credit to the team at Waikato and to MVS.”
From those desperate beginnings, Ohope Wins has now amassed $1.5 million in prize money, with four wins from eight starts, and with plenty more likely to come.
The filly was wound in on Saturday night by bookmakers for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, becoming a $26 chance in both. Her new trainer will likely be looking forward to both.
“Speaking with Lance O’Sullivan, the confidence he had in her – he said she’s one of the best horses that he’s ever had to deal with,” Waller said after Saturday’s Oaks triumph.
“So it’s a pretty big comment coming from him.”
