Vale Ohope Wins, Ocean Park’s tough, kind and courageous daughter

Long before the Group 1 wins, the trans-Tasman Oaks double and the roar of the crowds, Ohope Wins’ (Ocean Park) greatest victory belonged to a small group of people most racegoers will never know – the staff at Waikato Stud and the vets at Matamata Veterinary Services (MVS) who saved her life.

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.

The Waikato team there included Mark Chittick, Hazel Osment, Trent the vet and Jaimee Underwood, who didn’t hesitate to get her to Matamata Veterinary Services, where Tracey Kerr treated the sickly foal.

“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.”

At the MVS hospital, 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.”

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 the MVS vets got her through.

“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.”

What they gave the racing world

Every win that followed traced back to those first frantic days. By Ocean Park out of the Redoute’s Choice mare Choux Mania, a half-sister to New Zealand Horse of the Year Jimmy Choux, Ohope Wins broke her maiden for Lance O’Sullivan and Andrew Scott in the Gr.2 Sir Patrick Hogan Stakes (2000m) at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day, 2026. She followed up in the Gr.2 Fillies’ Classic (2100m) at Te Rapa, then claimed the Gr.1 New Zealand Oaks (2400m) at Ellerslie in February.

Transferred to Chris Waller after Yulong bought into her, she won the Gr.1 Australian Oaks (2400m) at Randwick in April, becoming just the fourth filly to complete the New Zealand-Australian Oaks double, joining Pennyweka, Bonneval and Domino. She captured both the 2025–26 NZB Filly of the Year series title and New Zealand’s Champion Stayer honors.

Her grit on the track came as no surprise to the people who had watched her fight as a foal – and perhaps some of it came from 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.”

As Billy Joel sings, ‘only the good die young’, and Ohope Wins was taken far too soon. Our thoughts are with the Gartshores, the Wexford team who cared for her early career, along with the Chris Waller Racing and Yulong teams.

Vale Ohope Wins.