New Zealand Secures Ocean Park

Cox Plate champion Ocean Park has been secured by New Zealand, enabling Australasian breeders access to one of the most exciting sire prospects of the modern era.

Backed by overwhelming support from New Zealand’s major breeding entities, Waikato Stud’s Mark Chittick consolidated a deal to purchase the five time Group one winner over the weekend, with owners happy to see Ocean Park stand in New Zealand at Waikato Stud.

“Horses the calibre of Ocean Park don’t come along every day, and when they do, you have to do all you can to secure them,” said Waikato Stud’s Mark Chittick.

“These are the horses that are the next chapter for New Zealand’s breeding industry and this is why we were wonderfully supported by many of New Zealand’s leading breeders in our quest to get him. We could not have struck this deal without them.”

Ocean Park achieved Australasian superstar status with a brilliant win in Australia’s weight-for-age championship, the Cox Plate this season, and with the attainment of five Gr.1 races – four of which were in succession.

“In his five Gr.1 wins alone he beat 29 individual Gr.1 winners who have won an amazing 67 Gr.1 races,” said Mark.

Gr.1 winners left in his wake include Pierro, All Too Hard, More Joyous, King Mufhasa, Veyron, Shoot Out, Manighar, Green Moon, Sincero, Southern Speed, Alcopop, December Draw, Guiseppina and Xanadu. Not surprisingly then, he was rated 128 by Timeform in April.

Prepared by Gary Hennessy, Ocean Park struck his Gr.1 wins at distances from 1400m to 2040m, with honours here coming in the MVRC WS Cox Plate, the MRC Caulfield Stakes, the MRC Underwood Stakes, the Hawke’s Bay Makfi Challenge Stakes and the ARC New Zealand Stakes.

In completing Australia’s Underwood Stakes-Caulfield Stakes-Cox Plate treble, Ocean Park emulated the feats of champion gallopers Ajax (1938), Bonecrusher (1986), Almaarad (1989), Northerly (2001) and So You Think (2010).

All told, the Trelawney Stud-bred colt won eight races from 15 starts, with four additional placings seeing him return earnings of $A2,799,817 to owners Andrew Wong, Stephen Yan and Gary Hennessy, who have retained an interest.

“It’s been a fabulous ride with him and we are so pleased to have struck a deal with Waikato Stud, who are literally just down the road from me. I know he’ll get every chance under their management,” said Gary Hennessy.

Boasting an equally impressive pedigree, Ocean Park ignites the sire power of Thorn Park and continues the legacy of one of New Zealand’s most successful female families through dam Sayyida.

His sire Thorn Park was awarded the Champion New Zealand sire title in 2010/11 and is the sire of additional Gr.1 winners such as Norzita, Jimmy Choux, Veyron, and The Party Stand.

The best was never seen of Ocean Park’s freakishly talented Zabeel dam Sayyida, who suffered a career-ending injury at start five in the Avondale Guineas.

This female family has seen generation after generation of Gr.1 success, with Joint Champion 2YO filly Hunza, producing the champion 2YO Courtza, who in turn produced the NZ Horse of the Year and now champion Waikato Stud sire O’Reilly.

“Ocean Park fits beautifully within the stud’s sire selection criteria and comes from a proven family that Waikato Stud has already enjoyed tremendous success with. Add to this, the fact that he is a Cox Plate winner, as was our sire Savabeel, and you can pretty quickly see why we were just so keen to retain him for New Zealand’s sire ranks,”

“In light of his outstanding race record and pedigree, Ocean Park will stand at Waikato Stud this season for NZ$30,000 plus GST,” concluded Mark Chittick.

Ocean Park is likely to take up residence at Waikato Stud in June.